Count me as one of those pleasantly surprised at this….
The increase in salary , which isn’t much for workers has not resulted in huge rushes to automation or mass lay-offs…
They just have been absorbed by companies….
Across seven states, recent pay increases have not clearly pushed people out of jobs, Arindrajit Dube, an economist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, found in an analysis published this month.
“Up to a point, minimum wages can be absorbed without any substantial changes in employment,” said Mr. Dube, who is advising the British government on wage policy.
Mr. Dube looked at California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York and Maine, all of which had raised pay to at least $10.50 by 2018, directly affecting almost 20 percent of their work forces. He found no discernible employment impact across the group, even for workers with low education levels.
“As these states have raised their minimums, at this point many of them are at $12, that is definitely telling us more information than we had before,” he said. “We don’t necessarily know what $15 at a federal level would do, but the evidence base is expanding.”
The fact that job losses are not rampant does not mean that a higher wage floor is painless. Evidence suggests that businesses cover higher labor costs in one of three ways, Mr. Dube said: taking a hit to profits, improving productivity or raising prices….
Increasing the minimum wage does cost jobs. It may not cause employers to fire their workers who would now get a pay increase, but for new workers, a company will be more likely to now use automation. Instead of a cashier, they are now more likely to have a self-checkout. And if you were thinking of starting a new company that will use low-wage workers, you are now less likely to start that new company.
A case can be made that the job loss impact is negligible, but I don’t believe for a second that it is zero.
Me either Z….
But I’d say you get tighter with cost….
Do more with less….