Blog Posts  (Page33)

The beloved holiday movie A Christmas Story was co-opted this week by the Department of Labor to argue that the minimum wage is worth 20% less than it was in November 1983 when the film was released. But the Department’s number-crunchers should have should followed Santa’s lead in checking…

Politicians like to say that “America needs a raise.” That might be true, but new research suggests that raising the minimum wage is not the best way to give them one. Researchers at the University of California-San Diego studied the effects of the 40 percent federal minimum wage increase…

Last month, Pastor Jack Mosley was forced to close his Hillsdale, Michigan restaurant, Tastes of Life because Michigan’s recent minimum wage increase made it impossible for him to stay in business. Proponents of raising the minimum wage say that cases like Pastor Mosley’s don’t exist. The labor union-backed National…

With the exception of hardline minimum wage advocates and their message mavens at PR firm BerlinRosen, most rational onlookers admit that a minimum wage hikes cost jobs. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the nation’s Chief Financial Officers, the country’s largest private staffing firm, and even Bill Gates—all agree that…

Proponents of raising the minimum wage often point to Scandinavian countries like Denmark as models for American labor policy. But the devil is in the details. Take this week’s New York Times profile of the comparatively high Danish minimum wage, for example. The authors ask, if the Danes can…

Our recent Wall Street Journal op-ed highlights some of the problems with the notion that the CEO/employee pay gap is too big, a popular lament from union-backed groups who argue that the gap is justification for increasing the minimum wage. In the piece, we highlighted the case of Yum…

When New York legislators passed an increase in the state’s minimum wage in 2013, they demurred on whether to increase the tipped minimum wage. A three-member Wage Board was appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo earlier this year to consider this question, and the board is now touring the…

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has been a vocal proponent for a higher minimum wage, and not just the $10.10 figure that President Obama has supported. In a commentary for ABC News written earlier this year, Warren argued that if the “minimum wage had kept up with increases in productivity, it…

This fall, Nebraskans will vote on an initiative that would raise the state’s minimum wage to $9 an hour by 2016. Proponents claim the wage hike will bring with it many benefits and few consequences. The labor union-backed Nebraskans for Better Wages, for instance, argues that it will help “restore…

The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), which is generously funded by the AFL-CIO and the SEIU, is a staunch advocate for increasing the minimum wage. CEPR’s senior economist, John Schmitt, has been a loyal foot solider in the minimum wage battle for years, writing on the topic in…