New evidence in Seattle suggests New York’s quest for $15 minimum wage may end in disaster
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While New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is traveling on a bus tour seeking support for his minimum wage proposal, the facts are coming out and economic experts are labeling a $15 minimum wage “reckless,” “radical” and an “economic canary in the coalmine” with respect to job losses.
The NY Post weighed in on Governor Cuomo’s $15 minimum wage proposal highlighting who would suffer most:
- Minorities and youths looking to take their first steps on their career ladder – only to find the lower rungs are gone.
- Elderly folks on fixed incomes unable to pay the higher prices.
- Workers across Upstate, which disproportionately depends on unskilled labor.
- Small businesses already struggling to make ends meet.
- Taxpayers, who will have to pay public workers more.
- Local governments squeezed by higher labor costs and a property-tax cap that limits their revenues.
NY Post EJ McMahon says, “New York has seldom seen an executive initiative as politically radical or economically reckless as Governor Cuomo’s proposal for a $15 minimum wage.”
Evidence suggests the negative economic impact it’s already having in Seattle, where they are phasing in a $15 minimum wage.
According to the American Enterprise Institute:
“Early evidence from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Seattle’s monthly employment, the number of unemployed workers, and the city’s unemployment rate through December 2015 suggest that since last April when the first minimum wage hike took effect: a) the city’s employment has fallen by more than 11,000, b) the number of unemployed workers has risen by nearly 5,000, and c) the city’s jobless rate has increased by more than 1 percentage point.”
Governor Cuomo is pushing hard, but the facts don’t bear out his arguments for justifying a 67% minimum wage increase.
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