If psychologists are right that ideological bias and policy preferences are more a matter of emotion than reason, then it is unlikely that any rational argument will keep advocates from believing that minimum-wage increases are anything but wonderful (“Our View: Portland’s minimum-wage increase shows the way,” Dec. 31).
Local business owners have detailed the adverse adjustments they will have to make to offset forced wage hikes (higher prices, reduced hours and benefits, some layoffs and fewer new hires) to no avail.
The editorial writer reports that restaurant openings in Seattle grew after higher wages went into effect, but so did closings, and Federal Reserve data show that restaurant employment in the city declined by 700 jobs from January to September last year.
Bottom line: Higher labor costs don’t generate new jobs or net economic growth. They simply redistribute income, with the biggest losers being those whom the higher wage makes unemployable.
It takes an extraordinary arrogance, a hallmark of progressive regulation, to assume that a third party can determine the right wage for every lower-level job, in every business, in every industry, and to tell unemployed workers that they can’t accept a job at less than an arbitrary minimum wage that exceeds their experience or skill level.
Minimum-wage increases are part of the progressive trend toward more regulation of every aspect of the labor market, and the result will be higher unemployment and slower growth if the experience in Europe is a guide.
Portland may also discover that virtuous impulses and selective facts don’t necessarily make good policy.
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