Santa Fe’s “Harm the Poor Ordinance”

Anybody for a $9.50 “living” wage? Then we can really do some damage!
Check this for damage already done by the $8.50 “living” wage (thanks to NCPA for alerting us):
Aaron Yelowitz of the University of Kentucky found that Santa Fe’s
minimum wage had significant and negative effects on the labor market.
Even more troubling, he found that the negative effects of the wage
hike were concentrated on the least-skilled members of the economy —
the very individuals the increase was intended to help.
He found:
o The likelihood of unemployment for employees in Santa Fe
went up by 3.3 percent.
o For less-educated employees, however, the results were much
higher, with their likelihood of unemployment
increasing 8.3 percentage points.
o The usual hours of work fell by 1.0 hours for the full
sample and 3.2 hours for less-educated individuals.
o There was significant evidence to suggest the displacement
of adult employees by unmarried high school age
employees.
These are all unintended consequences that should give pause to
any claims of success of the ordinance, says Yelowitz.
Source: Aaron S. Yelowitz, “How Did the $8.50 Citywide Minimum Wage
Affect the Santa Fe Labor Market? A Comprehensive Examination,”
Employment Policies Institute, December 6, 2005.
We told you so.

http://riograndefoundation.org/papers/living_wage_misguided.htm