New research reveals one of the bad things about a higher minimum wage

Since the advent of economists, economists have discussed the impact of minimum wage (pdf). There are few research topics with so many twists and turns. Many economists thought that employment rates would drop if wages were high, but after all, people would not want it if they were made more expensive. But then at least in the short term there is some evidence that a slight rise in minimum wage had no significant impact on employment. It sounds like a favorable situation for both parties, and policy makers are confident enough to raise the minimum wage significantly - the outcome varies.

New papers question the evidence that minimum wages are harmless. But at first it is good news. In this survey we surveyed the US data from 2011 to 2016 and found that not only those with the highest wage reaching legal minimum wage but also income from various workers in the U.S. . In other words, if an employer has to raise the wage of a worker of 10 dollars per hour, the wage of a worker of $ 15 per hour will also be raised. This study also found that, apart from a few young people, a low minimum wage harms employment.

And now, bad news. Economists estimate that raising the minimum wage by 1 dollar can lower the probability of medical insurance provided by the employer by 4 to 3 percentage points. After the rise in the minimum wage, many low-wage workers lost insurance. Raising the minimum wage narrows the coverage of low-income class insurance, but still earns higher income than the minimum wage.

Research speculates that it is necessary to pay higher labor costs from somewhere. Jon Meer, a professor of Texas A & M, one of the writers, said: "It affects other things that might not be available in the data, such as benefits, other forms of compensation, flexibility and free parking."

Employers are not willing to provide medical insurance as "affordable medical laws" enforced just before the study period may also mean people have different medical options. Another interesting result of this survey is that workers who lost insurance sponsored by their employers could not be purchased elsewhere, even if they have the right to receive subsidies. They just did not report it

Overall, this study presumes that an increase in salary is insufficient to compensate for the value of losing health insurance and worsens the situation for workers.

These results do not necessarily mean that the minimum wage growth is a bad policy. However, they support the view that the higher the minimum wage, the lower the employment cost of less proficient workers. In discussing the minimum wage policy, it is important to recognize this cost.

Whenever a city or state discusses raising the minimum wage, both business and conservative legislators take a series of three threats. They believe that higher minimum wages will hinder employment opportunities. They insist that wages suffer companies. They insist that prices will rise sharply. (Below is a survey of EPI before raising wages in Seattle, most companies predict all three.) This is the three main issues on raising wages.

When Seattle started running a minimum wage of $ 15, the city hired a team of economists at the University of Washington and analyzed the impact of wages on cities. Since then, the results of the study of Seattle's Minimum Wage Study Group have been largely forward-looking. In 2016, they discovered that Seattle 's wage increased, employment of the city' s low - employment increased, and time worked. They reported at the beginning of this year that the impact of wage increases on restaurant hiring was "near zero." This week, Seattle's Minimum Wage Research Group's Seattle minimum wage research group announced a report that the price of restaurants and grocery stores did not rise due to the minimum wage.