Sarah Solon
Minimum Wage Mythbusters
Here's something that should happen more often: A recent study from the Albany-based Fiscal Policy Institute has found that raising the minimum wage ends up indirectly benefiting small businesses, and spurring the entire economy. Their study dispells the old excuse some conservatives have ployed that raising the miminum wage reduces the number of jobs.
Isn't it just lovely when what's right ethically also makes the best policy for everyone?
Overriding the argument that increasing pay leads to job loss (this is the argument that Pataki cited when he vetoed raising the minimum wage), the Fiscal Policy Institute's study showed that, when the minimum wage was increased, the average retail employee's hours went up - from a mean of 30.7 hours per week to 31.3 - not down.
And more hours at higher pay leads to more spending power, according to this study:
Raising the minimum wage benefits minimum wage workers, and apparently the entire economy - not to mention all of the other workers whose wages are pegged at one or two dollars above the minimum wage. This legislation ends up putting more purchasing power in the hands of a huge amount of Americans.
This isn't the first time the Fiscal Policy Institute has disproved the myth that raising wages cuts jobs, in the retail industry. This year's study comes after a similar study four years ago - which found the same results. And it attempts to show the impact of raising the minimum wage to $6 last year, to $6.75 this year, and to $7.15 next year, the last in a three-year increase.
Thank you, Fiscal Policy Institute. What's good for low-income New Yorkers is also good for New York's economy - a policy frame we just might want to hold onto.
Sarah Solon: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 11:46 AM, Apr 04, 2006 in
Economic Opportunity | Economy | Employment | New York | Progressive Agenda
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