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Results from Santa Fe's experiment with higher minimum wages
by confuzzled dude Wed Aug 13, 2014 10:43 am
Economists who studied the wage hike here in its first critical years say its impact was barely detectable, absorbed by the larger economy. Teasing out cause and effect amid small sample sizes, incompatible data sets and the vast, moving machinery of the market proved difficult.
In the language of the studies: “There are, of course, many reasons why this indicator might go up.”
Or down.
In this historic capital of 70,000 people, 10 years has brought a stalemate. Has the city’s living wage — now at $10.66 an hour — been an overall benefit? Absolutely. Not at all. Sometimes. Maybe. It depends. It’s complicated.
Since the rollout of a living wage in The City Different, not a whole lot is. At least not in the big picture. The unemployment rate stays where it always stays, lower than the rest of New Mexico. Gross sales tax receipts have climbed back out of the trough of recession. The number of new business licenses issued rises and falls, rises and falls, never far from about 600 a year. The number of people working in the area’s leisure and hospitality sector, where the bulk of low-wage workers are employed, remains steady. No one has done a recent study to see what’s happened with food stamp and public assistance caseloads, but early data seemed to indicate mixed results — none of which could be directly tied to an increase in minimum wage.
One of the lessons learned is that the sky didn’t fall,” Mayor Javier Gonzales says. “The doom and gloom that was predicted never came to be. . . . But the living wage is not a silver bullet, either. It’s not a quick fix and it alone won’t save the economy.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/08/04/santa-fe-hiked-worker-pay-what-happened-next-is-unclear/
In the language of the studies: “There are, of course, many reasons why this indicator might go up.”
Or down.
In this historic capital of 70,000 people, 10 years has brought a stalemate. Has the city’s living wage — now at $10.66 an hour — been an overall benefit? Absolutely. Not at all. Sometimes. Maybe. It depends. It’s complicated.
Since the rollout of a living wage in The City Different, not a whole lot is. At least not in the big picture. The unemployment rate stays where it always stays, lower than the rest of New Mexico. Gross sales tax receipts have climbed back out of the trough of recession. The number of new business licenses issued rises and falls, rises and falls, never far from about 600 a year. The number of people working in the area’s leisure and hospitality sector, where the bulk of low-wage workers are employed, remains steady. No one has done a recent study to see what’s happened with food stamp and public assistance caseloads, but early data seemed to indicate mixed results — none of which could be directly tied to an increase in minimum wage.
One of the lessons learned is that the sky didn’t fall,” Mayor Javier Gonzales says. “The doom and gloom that was predicted never came to be. . . . But the living wage is not a silver bullet, either. It’s not a quick fix and it alone won’t save the economy.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/08/04/santa-fe-hiked-worker-pay-what-happened-next-is-unclear/
confuzzled dude- Posts : 10205
Join date : 2011-05-08
Re: Results from Santa Fe's experiment with higher minimum wages
by nevada Wed Aug 13, 2014 4:37 pm
Is it just me or does anyone else get the feeling that WAPO's tone is passive-aggressive?
nevada- Posts : 1831
Join date : 2011-04-29
Re: Results from Santa Fe's experiment with higher minimum wages
by confuzzled dude Wed Aug 13, 2014 4:54 pm
passive aggressive as in republican theories on minimum wage hike are debunked.nevada wrote:Is it just me or does anyone else get the feeling that WAPO's tone is passive-aggressive?
confuzzled dude- Posts : 10205
Join date : 2011-05-08
Re: Results from Santa Fe's experiment with higher minimum wages
by nevada Wed Aug 13, 2014 4:59 pm
Republicans just bluntly say what they want to say, without ever letting the facts get in the way. WAPO OTOH seems cagey, beating around the bush, pulling its punches.confuzzled dude wrote:passive aggressive as in republican theories on minimum wage hike are debunked.nevada wrote:Is it just me or does anyone else get the feeling that WAPO's tone is passive-aggressive?
nevada- Posts : 1831
Join date : 2011-04-29
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