- In the US, academics and economists regularly provide research on the impact of minimum wage hikes on overall employment.
- Some point to University of Washington’s study released last summer showing that Seattle’s recent minimum wage hike (from $11 to $13/hour) reduced low-level employment as reason not to raise wages.
- However, a recent UMass report analyzing minimum wage hikes across 137 cities since 1979 shows that fewer available low-level jobs were replaced with above minimum wage positions.
- Slow, gradual minimum wage hikes have little impact on overall employment.
