Yet again, allegations and skewed logic by opponents of minimum wage fail to reach reality. The Associated Press breaks down a report by the Congressional Budget Office released to make this aptly clear:
"In the 13 states that boosted their minimums at the beginning of the year, the number of jobs grew an average of 0.85 percent from January through June. The average for the other 37 states was 0.61 percent.
"Nine of the 13 states increased their minimum wages automatically in line with inflation: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. Four more states — Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island — approved legislation mandating the increases."
" 'It raises serious questions about the claims that a raise in the minimum wage is a jobs disaster,' said John Schmitt, a senior economist at the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research. The job data 'isn't definitive,' he added, but is 'probably a reasonable first cut at what's going on.' "
So let's just look at two of the most compelling (and unaddressed by opponents of minimum wage) reasons why a minimum wage isn't expected to have economically catastrophic effects, shall we?
1) When we implement a minimum wage, we give the employees affected, who happen to constitute a large share of our country's consumers and have been proven in the past to have the highest marginal propensity to consume, more buying power. That increase in their income partially comes back to our economy.
2)
Anne Hallam of Iowa State University has found that, "Paying wages 10% above the market norm increases output between 2 and 6%". Just why? To put it bluntly, higher wages makes a job more valuable and rewarding to a worker. More value and reward means a happier worker. And a happier worker means more productivity and performance.
And yet again, we have been presented with a reason to raise our long-outdated minimum wage, one in the status quo makes the lives of the people supported by it near unsustainable.