Progressives have long complained that the federal minimum wage has remained at $7.25 an hour since 2009.
But they have had surprising success in creating a two-tiered system in which only 20 states are now at the federal minimum and many cities have eye-popping wage scales of up to $19 an hour or $40,000 a year. Among cities with sky-high minimums are Seattle at $18.69 an hour, San Francisco at $18.07, Washington D.C. at $17, Los Angeles at $16.78 and Portland at $15.45.
Just last week, several states raised their minimum wage. Connecticut is now at $15 an hour and Nevada’s wage went up to $11.25 an hour.
The Biden administration has also done what it could to hike labor costs – last year it raised the minimum wage for all employees on federally funded projects to $15 a hour.
As we’ve pointed out, while minimum wage hikes “feel good” to many people they have clearly been shown in economic studies to destroy jobs. The latest is from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, which found that Minnesota’s once-thriving retail sector (think Mall of America) has seen 28% fewer retail jobs than researchers would’ve expected from a similar city during the same five-year period.
It is sad that the same media outlets that insist we follow what they call “the science” in everything from COVID lockdowns to gender identity completely ignore study after study that minimum wage increases hurt lower-income workers.