St. Louis Just Hiked Minimum Wage by 43%; Guess What Happens Next

Seemingly no amount of empirical evidence will ever convince progressives that raising minimum wages to artificially elevated levels is a bad idea.  Somehow the basic idea that raising the cost of a good ultimately results in lower consumption of that good just doesn’t compute. 

And while roughly 50% of the country will promptly ignore it, below is yet another study, from Dr. David Macpherson of Trinity University and Dr. William Even or Miami University, pointing out the devastating consequences of minimum wage hikes.

This study takes a look at the city of St. Louis and its decision to hike minimum wage rates 43% by 2018 from $7.70 per hour to $11.00.  Macpherson figures such a hike will cost the city roughly 1,000 jobs and, as usual, will hurt the “young and less-skilled” workers the most.

Minimum wage proponents in the city have portrayed the proposed increase as a no-lose proposition. The labor union funded group Missouri Jobs With Justice has even suggested a minimum wage hike would help local businesses and the economy. But a wide body of economic research, including a 2014 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, concludes that minimum wage hikes reduce job opportunities especially for the young and less-skilled.

A new analysis by Dr. David Macpherson of Trinity University and Dr. William Even of Miami University finds that an $11 minimum wage in St. Louis would cost the city roughly 1,000 jobs, with the job loss mostly occurring among the city’s most vulnerable populations.

Meanwhile, Macpherson notes that minimum wage hikes often don’t even help poor families, at least those that are able to keep their jobs after the layoff notices are passed out, but instead flow to the teenage workers of more affluent families. 

Beyond the consequences to the labor market, raising the minimum wage has been criticized on the grounds that it’s poorly-targeted to low income families. For instance, an earlier analysis found that the average family income of a beneficiary of a $12 minimum in Missouri exceeds $57,000 a year. (Many of the employees are second- or third-earners in higher-income households.) Similarly, Census Bureau data shows that over half (52 percent) of the state’s poor residents don’t work, and wouldn’t be impacted by a raise.

And here’s a look at who will get crushed the most by St. Louis’ ‘progressive’ policies.

Women…

Teens…

Low-skilled…

Of course, when all of these minimum wage hikes prove to be miserable failures, the responsible ‘progressives will effortlessly lay the blame at the feet of the wealthy 1%’ers who are behind all the layoffs.  Checkmate.