No Effect

The Minimum Wage: Which Economists Does the Post Talk to?

Beat the Press

The Washington Post has an interesting piece discussing the life of the low-wage workforce in small town Kansas. It also tells us of the problems that low-wage employers will face in paying the higher minimum. At one point it asserts that "most economists agree [that the proposed minimum wage hike] would cause a modest increase in national unemployment."



I'm not sure how they have determined the views of most economists. There is a large body of recent research that indicates that modest increases in the minimum wage, like that being considered, have no measurable effect on unemployment. The wage increase is absorbed in lower profits and higher prices.