Raise minimum wage, shorten employment ladder
Raise minimum wage, shorten employment ladder
(Bowling Green, Kentucky) – Like they do nearly every year, Kentucky lawmakers are considering raising the minimum wage during the current session of the General Assembly.
Supporters claim that such increases benefit low-wage workers – a popular misconception that fails to acknowledge the unintended consequences and complicated issues involved. If all workers would benefit – and there are no damaging effects – by simply changing the law, then the General Assembly should just raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour.
Unfortunately, increasing the minimum wage would have a negative impact on Kentucky’s economy.
Higher minimum wages mean employers will have to pay more for low-skilled labor. To compensate, they usually react by hiring fewer workers.
According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), only 1 percent of workers over the age of 25 actually work for minimum wage, so the cuts in hiring will fall predominantly on Kentucky’s young people. An analysis in the Southern Economic Journal estimates that every 10-percent increase in the minimum wage will decrease teenage employment by 5.7 percent.
While increasing the minimum wage may well benefit a few low-wage workers, many more people will see their jobs disappear or be denied the opportunity to get a job at all.
“I wish we could make the lives of Kentucky’s low-wage workers better just by passing this law,” said Aaron Morris, fiscal policy analyst for the Bluegrass Institute, Kentucky’s free-market think tank. “It’s not that easy. This intended increase will cut the bottom rung off the employment ladder for thousands of young people in Kentucky trying to work their way through school or gain valuable experience in the workforce.”
Kentucky should maintain its minimum wage at the federal level, and resist the temptation to enact policies which appear to help the working poor, but in practice do the exact opposite.
– For interview information, contact Jim Waters, Director of Policy and Communications for the Bluegrass Institute. He can be reached at (270) 782-2140 or jwaters@bipps.org.
(Bowling Green, Kentucky) – Like they do nearly every year, Kentucky lawmakers are considering raising the minimum wage during the current session of the General Assembly.
Supporters claim that such increases benefit low-wage workers – a popular misconception that fails to acknowledge the unintended consequences and complicated issues involved. If all workers would benefit – and there are no damaging effects – by simply changing the law, then the General Assembly should just raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour.
Unfortunately, increasing the minimum wage would have a negative impact on Kentucky’s economy.
Higher minimum wages mean employers will have to pay more for low-skilled labor. To compensate, they usually react by hiring fewer workers.
According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), only 1 percent of workers over the age of 25 actually work for minimum wage, so the cuts in hiring will fall predominantly on Kentucky’s young people. An analysis in the Southern Economic Journal estimates that every 10-percent increase in the minimum wage will decrease teenage employment by 5.7 percent.
While increasing the minimum wage may well benefit a few low-wage workers, many more people will see their jobs disappear or be denied the opportunity to get a job at all.
“I wish we could make the lives of Kentucky’s low-wage workers better just by passing this law,” said Aaron Morris, fiscal policy analyst for the Bluegrass Institute, Kentucky’s free-market think tank. “It’s not that easy. This intended increase will cut the bottom rung off the employment ladder for thousands of young people in Kentucky trying to work their way through school or gain valuable experience in the workforce.”
Kentucky should maintain its minimum wage at the federal level, and resist the temptation to enact policies which appear to help the working poor, but in practice do the exact opposite.
– For interview information, contact Jim Waters, Director of Policy and Communications for the Bluegrass Institute. He can be reached at (270) 782-2140 or jwaters@bipps.org.
posted by CincinnatiLibertarian at 11:00 AM
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