Minimum wage laws - the net effect?

[Dispassionate]

This was recently announced on AFX news - "A top priority for the Democratic-controlled Congress, which convenes in January, will be raising the federal minimum wage from 5.15 an hour to 7.25 an hour. That wage has not been increased for nearly 10 years."

Usually minimum wage laws means that at some point the loss of jobs to a country that has cheaper labour.

Does anyone else have any other views what the net effect of minimum wage laws might be?

 

[fxchant]

Minimum wage

This was recently announced on AFX news - "A top priority for the Democratic-controlled Congress, which convenes in January, will be raising the federal minimum wage from 5.15 an hour to 7.25 an hour. That wage has not been increased for nearly 10 years."

Usually minimum wage laws means that at some point the loss of jobs to a country that has cheaper labour.

Does anyone else have any other views what the net effect of minimum wage laws might be?

The states with the strongest individual economies here in the US are the ones with the highest minimum wages. Increases over time that keep the MW up with inflation tend to be very good for the economy.

 

[rharmelink]

The states with the strongest individual economies here in the US are the ones with the highest minimum wages.

The question remains though -- which is the cause and which is the effect? For all I know, states with the strongest individual economies have a stronger demand for unskilled labor, meaning there would be little or no reason to fight an increase in a mandated minimum wage because it is an irrelevant amount.

For example, several years ago, a theatre chain in the Twin Cities was hiring for two different theatres they own. The one at the Mall of America was offering $9 per hour. The one in the outer suburbs was offering $6 per hour. For the same job. The Mall of America had already drained the local supply of minimum wage job seekers, and needed to entice labor from further away.

But I will agree they can feed upon each other, to some degree. But I still think supply and demand should drive the price.