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| AEIdeas
What’s new in economics
In June of last year, the Seattle city council passed a $15 minimum wage law to be phased in over time, with the first increase to $11 an hour taking effect on April 1, 2015. What effect will the eventual 58% increase in labor costs have on small businesses, including area restaurants? It’s too soon to tell for sure, but there is already some evidence that the recent minimum wage hike to $11 an hour, along with the pending increase of an additional $4 an hour by 2017 for some businesses, has started having a negative effect on restaurant jobs in the Seattle area.
People celebrate with ice cream at Seattle City Hall after a Seattle City Council meeting in which the council voted on raising the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour in Seattle, Washington June 2, 2014. Reuters
The chart below shows that the Emerald City MSA started experiencing a decline in restaurant employment around the first of the year (when the state minimum wage increased to $9.47 per hour, the highest state minimum wage in the country), and the 1,300 job loss between January and June is the largest decline over that period since 2009 during the Great Recession (data here). The loss of 1,000 restaurant jobs in May following the minimum wage increase in April was the largest one month job decline since a 1,300 drop in January 2009, again during the Great Recession. In contrast to the January-June loss of restaurant jobs in the Seattle area: a) restaurant employment nationally increased by 130,700 jobs (and by 1.2%) during that same period (data here), b) overall employment in the Seattle MSA increased 1.2% and by 21,800 jobs (data here) and c) non-Seattle MSA restaurant employment in Washington state increased 3.2% and by 2,800 jobs (data here).
Perhaps Seattle’s restaurant employment will recover, or perhaps it will continue to suffer from the upcoming full 58% increase in labor costs for the city’s restaurants that will be phased in during the coming years – time will tell. What we know for sure is that there are now 1,300 Seattle area restaurant workers who were employed in January who are no longer employed today, so it looks like the Seattle minimum wage hike is getting off to a pretty bad start.
More on the minimum wage debate from AEI scholars
While TOTAL non-farm employment in the Seattle MSA was up 22,00 (1.2%) for that period.
Though, keep in mind that this data is for the entire MSA, of which the city of Seattle is less than half, so it is “possible” that the reduction in restaurant employment came from outside the city and SeaTac, which also is imposing a higher minimum wage.
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Remember Sam that the NFP headline number is not for the 24-55 age group. The jobs are going to the young and the senior citizens. So even if the numbers go up, the number of people who can afford to eat out 3-4 times a month will not go up. The gross sales number will tell the tale, look for prices to rise & hours to be cut. As long as sales stay above food & operating costs places will stay open but it is not going to be fun. People who support policies that defy the law of supply & demand so they can feel good sometime see things differently when folks are told to hit the street. It usually is a while before things swing back into balance. The real answer is to face the fact that we cannot save everyone & we have to allow people to make a profit.
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The answer is to get government out of my pocket. I am a contractor and paid better than avrage wages to eight men that paid taxes and bought things. With the continued raise of taxes and more regulation I could no longer train the two apprentices that would have allowed future good paying jobs. I provided what benefits I could but with governments demands I could no longer survive and put eight families out of work. Government has a deep endless pocket and doesn’t know what profits are. it is no different with restaurants. profits are slim and the people you get have no skills and with the attitude that they should start at the top and get top pay. These jobs are not meant to support a family. When you get someone who can just berly read and write and cant do math without a calculator is it my job to train them? It seems government hasn’t done a stellar job ….Grampa
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As I side note, a number of waiters in Seattle restaurants are very angry because customers have started tipping less. The customers incorrectly think that the waiters are already making the $15 rate.
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Oh well……
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Personally, once the higher wage kicks in I wouldn’t be surprised that people stop tipping all together
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If you feel as if your pockets are being picked you will change how you guard your money…..mostly by KEEPING more of it.
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While it is seen that the number of jobs is decreasing after the initial $4 increase from $11 to $15, I believe that this will be a short term loss or decline. Nowadays, our economy is getting rough and living styles are becoming more expensive, so there needs to be some way for employers to gain this extra cash. Even though restaurants may be against this in the beginning, I believe that eventually the number of jobs will be begin to spike back up. Sooner or later, restaurants will realize that a higher minimum wage is necessary and adaption will come.
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I agree with you Johnny. There will be equilibrium. It will be achieved when the increased minimum wage is offset by rising prices everywhere else.
It’s like when oil becomes more expensive it’s not just gasoline and airline tickets that cost more. Because everything relies on fuel for distribution, the cost of everything goes up.
And so it is with a minimum wage. All things will cost more, even things like rent, which don’t rely on many minimum wage workers.
When that equilibrium is achieved you will find that low-skilled cheap labor is right back at the bottom again, struggling to make ends meet.
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Johnny Liu says: “this will be a short term loss or decline“…
I’m guessing millions of soon to be unemployed might take issue with that thought…
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Johnny LIu
I think that you missed this. The pay increase in January was only $1.50 to $11 per hour. That is the initial increase and the initial impact. The $4 increase still to come has to be implemented between now and 2017.
Bottom line is if you are going to increase the hourly wage by $6.50 you have to either reduce profits taken on existing sales, increase existing sales per hour to increase profits, or you have to raise prices to cover the additional expenses. And the increase in wages to the employee may not be the only cost to the business. What about the increased cost of benefits or taxes to the company.
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David, that’s correct. Johnny’s opinion isn’t. As a restauranteur, because everyone believes that raising prices to increase profit to cover costs is the answer, that may have been what I was taught in my freshman marketing class in college, but everyone is forgetting one important variable. When I raise the price of a hamburger from $9.99 to $12.95 to cover the huge labor costs, am I guaranteed the same amount of people will come in and eat it? Of course not. So am I a poor operator because I’ve lost 15% of my customers due to their enormous bills when they check out? Will people pay $21 to eat a hamburger and a coke, plus tax and tip? So the variable is all the business that’ll be lost when prices are forced to go up dramatically. I like the language in the previous message, that the minimum wage has “only” gone up $1.50 so far, not the full amount. Does the average person even know what a $1.50/hr wage hike adds up to, when you employ people for hundreds and hundreds of hours per week? People need to be better about realizing the bigger picture.
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But the economic reality is that when everyone in the economy is making a more living wage, you will have more customers. If you are a good restaurant that appeals to the masses, you should see an uptick in customers as more folks can now afford to eat out. You would be well served to market to these people who find themselves with a bit more disposable income nowadays.
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Not so Lisa. This is a zero-sum game. The money that is going to these higher wages comes right from the pockets of restaurant owners who now have less to spend. Even if the multiplier effect is somewhat higher for min wage earners the stimulus to the aggregate demand is next to nothing.
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Lisa
No. You need to explain where that “more living wage” comes from. It must come from someone else, unless you think it can just appear out of thin air.
There is no free lunch.
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You guys are both wrong and are ignorantly supporting a policy that is detrimental for society and the economy at large. Low wages are a sign of low skill and low economic worth, arbitrarily assigning a number to it does not change it’s actual value. All it does is in end preclude people of low skills and experience who desperately need skills and experience from gaining such skills and experience. Historically it is a failing aspect of a socialist agenda that unaffected people typically ignorantly support. My advice to you people, transcend the dogma and ask yourself, “what really works?”
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Andrew, your an idiot. I have a Master’s degree and wait tables. I don’t lack skills and experience. The elderly who work generally don’t lack skills and experience. Have you tried to find a job lately?
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Bro, you have a masters and your grammar is trash. I call BS.
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Scarecrow, you’re the exception. You’d think, with your higher education, you’d be smart enough to realize that. McDonalds jobs weren’t meant for 35 year old lazy adults, they were meant for teenagers. If you’re 35 and working for $8/hour, you haven’t tried hard enough to A) make yourself more marketable and B) find a better job. With your masters degree, you’ll be fine, if in fact you’ve hit a stumbling block. Nothing gets accomplished by paying wal-mart cashiers $15 an hour, except they no longer need to try to make themselves stand out from the cashier next to them.
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Scarecrow
Then you are part of the problem. You are standing in the doorway keeping less skilled and experienced workers from entering the job market. The minimum wage will cause employers to hire more people like you, instead of those with less skill if they must pay a higher wage in either case. It also eliminates any cost to an employer for indulging their personal prejudices.
Of course you didn’t indicate what your degree qualifies you to do. Maybe it’s not in great demand right now.
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If you have a Masters Degree and skillsets, why are you still in a job waiting on tables?
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I guess you don’t remember when people worked at gas stations and pumped your gas, checked your oil and cleaned your windshield for you. You probably don’t remember when people worked at theaters helping you find your seats. Or when the neighborhood kids saved up for college by mowing lawns and raking leaves and shoveling snow. When assembly lines were filled with people and not robots.
Those jobs are just plain gone, done in by minimum wage and regulations. Unemployment by teens used to be in the single digits, regardless of race or any other groupings you care to put on it.
Economic fact: You can’t hire someone who doesn’t make you more than what you pay (in total … taxes, benefits, regulations and all) them. So of course, those with low skills or abilities are the ones who get hurt the worst. The very same people who need those entry level jobs the most.
Then one other unseen … Say you’re the person who’s busted their butt for 10 years getting up to $15/hr on a job. Now anyone off the street makes just as much. What has all that effort been worth now? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. So why bother even trying any more? What do you think that state of mind is going to do to what the hardest workers and people who spent years building up their skills are willing to do any more?
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Johnny
On what do you base this remarkable prediction?
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Ron he makes his predictions on the same basis as his belief in the tooth fairy.
He says it a few times in his post, I Believe, I Believe…..
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What are you saying? Is there something you’re not telling me about the tooth fairy?
https://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090607145610/uncyclopedia/images/f/f9/Toothfairy_bloody_pillow.jpg
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I assume he bases it on the same market reaction to every other minimum wage increase.
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Tom
Do you mean in the way Mike described it above, or is there really a free lunch?
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“he bases it on the same market reaction to every other minimum wage increase.”
Such as minority youth unemployment rates stuck at 20%+ for decades (dubbed “crisis” levels all that time by the same people who advocate higher minimum wage)?
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let’s decrease the maximum wage. the employer won’t have any trouble coming up with the difference.
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If you took the entire compensation of the CEO of McDonalds and split it up between all of the McDonalds’ employees they would get all of a 1 cent an hour raise.
Staples would be a bit better off. Their people would get almost 5 cents an hour more.
Those sound bites may feel good, but the reality doesn’t match up.
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henri
Great idea! Let’s pay some people less than they’re worth so we can pay others more than they’re worth. What could go wrong?
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The part where you say “same market reaction to minimum wage increase” would only hold true if the increase was similar in percentage as previous min. wage increases which this is not, especially when you see that it will bounce higher twice in next 2 years, leaving employers paying 58% more.
To even suggest it is the same is facetious.
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Why do you continue to even think about this after the settled science of Card & Kreuger? Are you some kind of anti-science flatearth creationist libertopian rightwing witch-burning neanderthal astrological gun-toting nutcase holocaust-denier? Hmm?
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Ah, “settled science.” I never realized economics was all settled but thanks for the update. Nothing new to see here, everyone move along please.,
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That was sarcasm. Hard to tell sometimes on a blog.
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Hm…I feel as though there may be more to this story than just the minimum wage. According to the BLS, the median hourly wage for food service workers in Washington was already around $11/hr in 2014 before the hike went into place. I’m sure minimum wage did have some role to play, but there may be a larger factor at work here.
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If the median wage was $11 an hour before, that means that half of workforce had to have their pay increased to meet the new minimum. How could that not be hugely significant?
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Remember, “median” means half are below, half are above. What likely happened is the bottom half were culled while the more valuable top half were kept, in an effort to keep mandated wages in line with what the employees actually produce.
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If the median hourly wage is $11, that means half of food service workers made less than $11. #VocabularryLesson
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re: median
I’m pretty sure Jon understands the concept of “median”.
I believe his point is that the new min wage rate of $11/hr isn’t enough of an overall increase in payrolls to have caused the amount of disruption we see in the restaurant business in Seattle. There may be other causes as well.
I’m sure he’ll correct me if I’m wrong.
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Right, Ron.
As you guys rightly point out, “median” means half of people make below that wage, but half make above it, too (in theory). I’m just saying since a significant amount of the workforce already made the wage before the hike went into place, I doubt the hike was a major factor in the January-June decline. It was a factor, to be sure, but I’m thinking something else is the driving force.
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Jon Murphy, TheIrishLass, SD Surfer,
Just to be clear, I think the medium of a set is the number such that at most 50% of the set are above it and at most 50% are below it. That’s not exactly the same as saying that 50% are above and 50% are below.
Consider a population of restaurant workers where 80% earn exactly the new minimum wage of $11 an hour and 20% earn more. For such a population, the median wage is $11 an hour. No workers earn less than the median and 20% earn more than the median.
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Sorry for the typo above. First sentence should read:
“Just to be clear, I think the median of a set…”
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John
I think your 80/20% example is wrong. There must be the same number of members of the set above and below the median, with at most 50% of them being below or above, as in the series 3,5,7,9, 11 where the the median is 7 and there are two numbers (40%) below and two (40%) numbers above the median, and one member at the median.
With an even number of members, 50% would be below and 50% above the median, with no members AT the median as in 3,5,7,9 where the median is the mean of the two middle numbers, (5+7)/2 = 6.
The series 3,5,5,5,7 would have three members at the median, one below and one above.
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John’s right. Half the set is median or above and half the set is median or below the median. That’s why I added “in theory” to my comment.
Like any averaging statistic, whether it be mean, median, or mode, there is always room for error. I tend to use median when making economic calculations as it adjusts for outliers that mean does not.
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Ron, it is not correct that 50% of a set must be above the median and 50% of a set must be below the median. Most people were taught that way in school presumably because that’s a simple example to use in demonstrating the differences between median, mean and mode. But the correct definition of median is the one I provided. All datasets do not have the same property as the very simple one you referred to – where every member has the same value. In large datasets such as the wage rate of thousands of restaurant workers, it is very likely that many members have the same value as the middle member. In a dataset of wages with an artificially high price floor – exactly the situation which now exists for restaurant workers in Seattle – it is not unlikely that the median value and the lowest value would be the same.
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I meant to type:
“- where every member has a unique value.”
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Here’s an example which could represent the wages of workers in a small Seattle restaurant:
$11, $11, $11, $11, $12, $15
What is the median for this dataset? $11
How many employees have a wage below the median? 0
How many employees have a wage above the median? 2
This median of this small dataset does not fit the criteria Jon provided. As you can see, 60% of the members have a value which is at the median or below. 100% of the members have a value which is at the median or above.
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Jon & John
After returning to 5th grade for a refresher, I see that you are correct. Thanks for the correction. I would be embarrassed to make that mistake if I weren’t among friends.
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We all make mistakes, Ron. The important take away here is statistics are jerks.
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No problem with me, Ron.
I really made this point in the first place because I wanted folks to recognize how different is the distribution of prices when government imposes a price floor or price ceiling. In such cases, the artificial distribution can frequently yield a median equal to one of the end points of the ordered list.
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Technically youre all wrong. With a median equal parts make above and below while an undetermined number make the exact same, meaning those making more and less are equal but not necessarily 50% or half. Just figured in a room of eloquent assholes i should at least say something
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No, Ramsey. You are mistaken. The median is the middle of the list of members of the dataset, with the list arranged in ascending order. There is no requirement that equal parts of the dataset have values less than the median and more than the median.
The definition of median has not changed in the 40 years since I received my BS in mathematics.
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I expect you’re right. I would bet that it’s the anticipation of the larger increases that drove at least some of the current job losses. I suppose we’ll see once the future increases take place. If there is a proportionate job loss we may have a better story to tell.
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I tried to verify the information from the actual source of the information (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CES), but I could not.
The “downturn” in employment is due to seasonal adjustment, which BLS does not officially publish for industries within an MSA.
Using non-seasonal adjustment data published by BLS, the Seattle MSA added 2,900 jobs in food services and drinking places (SMU53426607072200001) from Jan. to June, fewer than in comparable periods from 2010 – 2014 but not a loss. So there is some weak evidence that the change in minimum wage is having an effect on employment.
I actually believe in using seasonal adjustment when available but also know that the factors can be tricky when applied to small samples.
The Seattle MSA is itself a sub-group of the Washington State survey, and food services and drinking places represents only approximately 7 % of workers in the MSA. I am not sure how many establishments are in this sub-sample but it must be relatively few.
AEI may be correct or not in their assertion of the effect of job changes due to changes in the minimum wage, but the seasonal adjustment factors used on a small sample could be causing the data to be noisy.
The only true way to know the effects would be a statistically valid survey of those specifically affected businesses, which perhaps AEI will be willing to fund?
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Here’s a link to the data, which was linked in the post:
https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/SMU53426607072200001SA
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So it looks like the St. Louis Fed themselves seasonally adjusted the data, not BLS. It’s at the very least curious that BLS has determined sample for this industry is too small for accurate seasonal adjustment, but the Fed is fine with it.
Regardless, I think the bigger issue is that the MSA here includes three counties, one of which is King (which contains Seatlle).
Based on 2014 estimates, Seattle accounts for 19.4% of the total MSA.
So in short, the above post relies on questionable seasonally adjusted data and uses data from an entire MSA to extrapolate what is happening in 19.4% of it. Kind of a stretch to say anything at all with that.
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Michael Wald, I might be missing something here. If the downturn is seasonal, why aren’t their similar sharp downturns in the chart at roughly the same time every year in the previous decade plus?
Like I said, I might just be misunderstanding your point/
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Well, the downturn wouldn’t be seasonal if we’re using seasonally adjusted data. In theory, seasonally adjusted figures account for natural seasonal fluctuations.
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There actually ARE nearly identical sharp downturns in the chart at roughly the same time every year…IF you look at the unadjusted version of this data series. It looks to me like whatever algorithm FRED used to seasonally adjust this data doesn’t work at the tail end of the data – the last year (and ONLY the last) doesn’t get smoothed. So both the downturn seen here AND the subsequent upturn seen in the month after it are following approximately the normal trend. It’s a LITTLE below trend, but not much.
(Here’s my attempt at a chart showing the normal behavior: http://tinyurl.com/pjk8wgp )
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Okay, it looks like the link doesn’t preserve scaling. To see the annual bumpiness of restaurant employment in all its glory, start with the link I gave, then edit data series #2 as follows:
(1) set “Y axis position” to RIGHT
(2) set “Units” to “Index”.
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It will be interesting, in a detached, distant sort of way, to see this played out over the next couple of years. I strongly believe that the plummeting restaurant jobs in the Seattle MSA is the new minimum wage rearing its predictable, ugly head, but as the author says time will tell.
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Given that we have not seen Bellvue or Renton raise the minimum wage while Seattle and Sea-Tac have it will be interesting to compare the performance of the restaurant sector in the two classes of cities. Now we have to include downtown Seattle because of the Hotel and convention effect, where folks don’t have cars. But for establishments where autos are the primary means of getting to them, one may or may not see a relocation effect.
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Welcome to the world as Bernie Sanders wishes it to be.
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Had lunch in Tacoma Friday and found a kind of user fee attached to the bill. When the menu changes that extra charge will be woven into price, but for now it is a real shock. After the prices change a 20% tip is going to become a thing of the past for me. Guess I just won’t eat out. My fixed income will not adjust for this.
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When the min wages increases i just tip less sorry for your luck
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What about CPI /Food Away From Home (in the Seattle area)? I’m counting on you for the data, Mark!!!!
Someone needs to explain, to the non economist, Robert Reich, about deadweight loss and price floors…
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Payroll taxes will increase for employers and employees about $.50/hr. , employee’s federal and state income taxes will increase , and businesses will pass on the higher costs to every consumer. Government is the only winner on a minimum wage increase this size.
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When we try to help solve problems, our weak minded and overly critical society sits around and judges and offers negative opinions about what is right and what is wrong, but offers no real concrete solution that doesn’t weigh heavily in the favor of their own agenda. Bailing out corporations, incentive tax returns, welfare, war, and other decisions made are to try and offer a quick workaround to what is happening right now… not to solve a problem forever or permanently right a wrong. The people making these decisions have way more to consider than you even take the time to care or educate yourself about. These decisions involve people of all kinds of scenarios. Think about it, would killing all mosquitoes solve the mosquito problem? Maybe, but then what does that do to the food chain? The economy system? The environment? Try to think outside your own grotesquely selfish view and consider those who are bounded by unjust poverty, or unattainable education, or handicapped, or ect.
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Arthur
I hate to point this out, but I didn’t detect a solution to any problem anywhere in that long rant, nor could I even identify a clearly defined problem.
What point would you like to make, Arthur? Please choose your words more carefully.
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When it comes to “solutions,” they rarely exist in the real world. It’s all a matter of trade offs. If you want more of this, you’ll have less of that.
Then there’s the problem of long term systemic consequences … things that are not originally seen but which manifest themselves over time.
Both of those facts are anathema to the progressive world view which seems to hold that if you just put the right rules into place everything will be wonderful for everyone (except for the most competent, but they’re so few that we don’t have to worry about them).
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Is the Seattle City Council perverse? They have proclaimed a good result, $15 by 2017. Why are they waiting until then, denying both the businesses and their workers the immediate benefits of the higher minimum wage?
They say that even for the businesses, decreased turnover and higher employee effort will more than make up for paying higher wages.
This is like saying that they know how to relieve poverty, but are phasing in that result. They know how to relieve hunger, but they are not going to do it too fast. For shame.
Really, I think the minimum wage is harmful. They should eliminate it, not raise it.
But, this isn’t about what I think, but what the city council thinks. They believe that a higher minimum wage is good. Why are they going slow?
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I saw two signs side by side at last years May Day parade in Seattle. One said “Open Borders” and next to it was “$15.00 minimum wage”. My thought was – pick one, because you can’t have both. I think wage growth (or lack of it) is the primary issue in our current economy, but it can’t be corrected by government edict. An excess of low skill workers obviously contribute to suppression of wages at the margin.
Specifically on restaurant wages – Washington State does not allow tip offset against minimum wage as some States do. In most decently run sit down restaurants, wait staff are (were) encouraged or required, to tip out a percentage to the kitchen staff and bus staff, so most made well above minimum wage already. Not all positions are worth the same money -dishwashers did not make as much as a good waiter for a variety of reasons. Under the Seattle law, wages are effectively equalized despite positions. I used to employ my own son to wash dishes on weekends. He was in High School and was excited to be working and and earn some of his own money, A lot of the other buss and kitchen staff were students that never intended this to be be permanent work . Automation will be replacing people and it is starting to be visible in some establishments in the form of table top ordering devices. This move will be the only way to survive here with the exception of the high end places. The Seattle City council has also passed several other provisions requiring sick leave and safe time leave; all of which are well intentioned and all add to costs. On payroll; If you add FICA, medicare tax, State L & I , unemployment tax etc, the eventual $15.00 minimum wage is closer to $17.00.(or higher) after all charges. The decision to add that next employee has to be well thought out.
i don’t don’t believe any of the existing Seattle city council members have ever run a small business (or any business for that matter other than maybe a non-prop) However, they are all apparent experts on the effect of labor costs on operational profits and all apparently went to the Hugo Chavez School of Economics.
Reduction of restaurant jobs was inevitable under this system, probably with the least skilled being the hardest it.
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I agree, B. Davis, that automation will eventually replace workers when government imposes wage price floors. Unfortunately, such shifts are not always evident in minimum wage research. That’s because such research tends to be limited to relatively short periods. The automation may not be implemented for a year or more, long after researchers have concluded that the minimum wage increase had little impact on employment of low-skilled workers.
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This is just another example of cherry picking data. Just after the 1,000 job decline there was a job increase of 800 jobs. Don’t take my word for it though: http://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2015/08/13/is-higher-minimum-wage-killing-restaurant-jobs-uh-no/
AEI has absolutely no credibility whatsoever. I certainly hope everyone reading this article comes to realize this, but unfortunately confirmation bias is alive and well. Judging by some of the posts here I’d say that some people will just continue to ignore the lack of true empirical data and believe any BS article that supports whatever economic philosophy they subscribe to.
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Well, since the moderators removed my post, I’ll try and repost it without the link to the website (Forbes) that debunks the AEIs misleading information. Removing this opinion now would certainly be indicative of an organization that fears dissenting views. Here is the prior post, sans the link: This is just another example of cherry picking data. Just after the 1,000 job decline there was a job increase of 800 jobs. Don’t take my word for it though: (link was here, now you’ll just have to Google it).
AEI has absolutely no credibility whatsoever. I certainly hope everyone reading this article comes to realize this, but unfortunately confirmation bias is alive and well. Judging by some of the posts here I’d say that some people will just continue to ignore the lack of true empirical data and believe any unsubstantiated article that supports whatever economic philosophy they subscribe to.
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Oops, looks like I was mistaken about my post being removed, my apologies.
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We have been devaluing labor for many years. Executive salaries have skyrocketed, but workers wages have stagnated.
Example-in my area there is a demand for CNC machinists. A skilled trade. But all the companies want at least 3 years experience, yet only want to pay $10-$12 per hour. And then complain that they can’t find machinists.
I made that much 30 years ago in my first technical job when I left the Navy.
We need a middle class, but the system is rigged to accumulate wealth for the few at the expense of the many. (And I say that as someone who is in the top 5% of income earners in the USA.)
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Maybe the author should have waited for the July BLS data before pronouncing the minimum wage hike a failure….this is a long term proposition and deserves a long term analysis…
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