United Liberty

The National Center for Policy Analysis explains the results of a recent Ball State University study into the effects of the recent minimum wage increase, which the authors say cost 550,000 jobs:

A study of part-time workers monitored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1999 to 2009 found that raising the minimum wage to its current level of $7.25 during the recent recession caused some businesses to scale back on filling vacant positions or eliminate jobs altogether, says Michael J. Hicks, director of Ball State’s Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER).

Other findings:

• About 67 percent of teenagers and young adult minimum wage workers live in households with incomes at least twice the poverty level (for example $44,000 for a family of four).
• Adult workers toiling at minimum wage have limited skill.
• About two-thirds of all adult minimum wage workers have a high school degree or less.
• One benefit of the minimum wage keeping some of these workers out the labor market is that it forces them to obtain additional education and training in the workforce development network.

According to the study, mostly teenage workers were affected by the hike. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that almost 49% of minimum wage workers were between the ages of 18 and 25.

Minimum wage laws keep new workers from gaining skills in entry level jobs needed to be successful. Lawmakers may mean well when they pass minimum wage laws, but they hurt the very people they intend to “help.”