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This is fairly easy to research. Type "living wage consequences" into a
search engine. <br>
<br>
Here is a simple 'compare and contrast' activity. One side is from
UMass Amherst, supporting living wages. But note carefully, these
studies, as far as I can tell, are from a theoretical POV. Exempli
gratia: The author of their Santa Monica paper admits that his
projections are theoretical. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.umass.edu/peri/programs/labormarkets/labormarkets.htm">http://www.umass.edu/peri/programs/labormarkets/labormarkets.htm</a><br>
<br>
The other side is from a Cato paper, referencing 80 studies showing
that the Federal Minimum Wage laws and subsequent Living Wage laws
actually increases unemployment among those they are designed to help.
Every time. These are empirical studies. Cato points out the fallacies
of the pro-living wage arguments, and an intelligent discussion of the
topic is obligated to address those. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-493es.html">http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-493es.html</a><br>
The Cato Institute study says:<br>
"The main beneficiaries of the living
wage are public-sector unionized employees
because of the reduced incentives for local governments
to contract out work. Instead of exploiting
grievances of the marginally employed against
'greedy' employers, advocates for the poor
should focus their energies on building the skills
of the poor."<br>
<br>
Another e.g.from Thomas Sowell: <font
face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">People in
minimum wage jobs do not stay at the minimum wage permanently. Their
pay increases as they accumulate experience and develop skills. It
increases an average of 30 percent in just their first year of
employment, according to the <a
href="http://cf.townhall.com/linkurl.cfm?http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-493es.html"
target="">Cato Institute study</a>. Other studies show that low-income
people become average-income people in a few years and high-income
people later in life.<br>
- <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20031105.shtml">http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20031105.shtml</a><br>
</font><br>
Sowell obviously has some data to suggest that minimum wage jobs are
'starter jobs' (4/5 in a minimum wage job are single young people in
their first job.) Now you may dislike Sowell intensely, but he is a
genuine economist, author of textbooks, and a researcher, so we
shouldn't reject him because of bias and prejudice against the
libertarian POV. We ought to examine the studies he bases his
statements on, just as any fair-minded person seeking to understand
complex group behavior. <br>
<br>
Before we argue, we can simply look at the research. Anyone who plows
through research will find ammunition on both sides. (As Robert
Rosenthal showed, researchers get what they want to get, especially in
social science.) The best studies are empirical, not theoretical, and
they appear to support my POV. My discussions with economists lends
support to my notion that these findings are well known. That they are
not welcome facts is also well known. <br>
Lynn<br>
Another cato-like source FYI: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.epionline.org/">http://www.epionline.org/</a><br>
Wikipedia: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage</a><br>
"The costs and benefits arising from minimum wages are subject to
considerable disagreement among <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economist" title="Economist">economists</a>,
though the consensus among economics textbooks is that minimum wage
laws should be avoided
whenever possible as the costs exceed the benefits. " follow the
discussion below this quote. <br>
<br>
Michael Christopher wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid20041126203934.63206.qmail@web13422.mail.yahoo.com">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Living wage laws -- government imposed -- reduce
</pre>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->the number of jobs to low income people, hurting the
ones you pretend to help. This is well known.<<
--I think it's assumed, not "well known". What kind of
sample was studied in making that determination?
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">More people out of work. More people in misery.
</pre>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->Sounds like a typical left wing bit of nonsense.<<
--Countered by a typical bit of right wing nonsense,
apparently. A lot of people let ideology govern their
thinking, rather than an actual analysis of what
happens when variables are changed in a society. It
requires humility, because in any multi-variable
system, changing one variable can unexpectedly affect
others, and it's all experimental. There is no
shortage of people with opinions, willing to impose
their opinions on the entire system, and the fallout
from such experimentation can be tragic. Everyone is
SO certain their hypothesis is correct, and so
unwilling to step down to the street level to see the
effects of their decisions up close.
Michael
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</pre>
</blockquote>
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