From the Economic Policy Institute (http://www.epi.org/):
Enabled by EPI research and grassroots activism, the $15 minimum wage is gaining traction across the country. In Congress and from New York City to Minneapolis to Seattle, EPI is providing lawmakers with the data they need to advance an agenda for working people.
But now, a ‘fundamentally flawed’ new study is being used to stop the momentum. EPI researchers were able to challenge this study on the morning it was released, helping to balance the media coverage.
The new study claims that increases in Seattle’s minimum wage caused major job loss and reduced their total wages. But Ben Zipperer and John Schmitt analyzed this study and found three major shortcomings in the methodology:
- The study fails to account for Seattle’s booming labor market, implausibly attributing employment losses to a rapidly improving job market characterized by extraordinarily fast wage growth;
- The study excludes all businesses with multiple locations in Washington State, thereby excluding roughly 40 percent of the workforce from their data;
- And, the estimates fall well outside the bounds of most published research.
Eight years ago, on July 24, 2009, was the last time the federal minimum wage was raised, from $6.55 to $7.25. If we were to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2024, as members of Congress have proposed, 41 million working people, thirty percent of the workforce, would benefit.
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