Kansas City Fed Study Seyz Slow & Steady Minimum Wage Increases Stay Winning

Let's start with a fact of life . . . Social Justice movements also have to cope with inflation . . . Example:

For job searchers, $20 per hour is the new $15

In Cali there's a move to start fast food workers at $22 per hour. 

Meanwhile . . . Somewhere back in reality . . .

The Kansas City Fed knows much more about economics than most armchair pundits taking their cues from think tanks crafted by cheapskate biz. 

And so . . . 

Here's an evidence-based guide to raising wages that advocates a more thoughtful strategy than what is demanded by most activists . . .

"Hungary and South Korea both implemented large, rapid shifts in their national minimum wages in recent decades. Brazil implemented a similarly large but more gradually paced increase, while Germany implemented a large change by instituting its first minimum wage in 2015.

"Taeyoung Doh and Luca Van der Meer compare these countries’ experiences with large minimum wage changes and summarize the effects on employment. Together, these international experiences suggest that both the pace and the size of the increase matter: large, rapid increases in the minimum wage have a more negative effect on employment than more gradual increases, especially in competitive sectors. The international evidence suggests that a gradual and steady increase of the federal minimum wage over the course of a few years is likely to generate a smaller employment effect than a one-time rapid increase."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

The Employment Effect of an Increase in the National Minimum Wage: Review of International Evidence

Increasing the federal minimum wage gradually and steadily may help minimize negative employment effects.

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