In recent years, a number of economic studies have concluded that small to moderate increases in the minimum wage do not necessarily cause a discernible decline in employment. Social activists have seized on these findings to argue that there are no job losses, and that it is possible to increase mandated wages by almost any amount without ill effects. The result has been a rush to raise the minimum wage to $15 in a number of states and cities, including Portland, ME, and now at the national level. The reality is that there is little consensus among economists about the…
Author: Martin Jones
Martin Jones
Martin Jones is a former Senior Managing Director in the investment division of US Bank. He writes about public policy, especially economic and financial policy, and occasionally about social and culture issues. He lives in Freeport.
The controversy over a hazardous-duty supplement to the minimum wage required by the recent referendum results in Portland is only a precursor of the harm that voter approval of a higher minimum wage, Green New Deal requirements for new construction and rent-control mandates will cause. The effect of their passage will be to make new building more expensive, reduce the city’s rental housing stock and impede job growth. There are good reasons why the country’s Founders established our government as a representative republic instead of a direct democracy. They were afraid that without the filter of deliberations by a body…