It's been a nightmare for Seattle since day one, and the people who should have benefited have been harmed. Nothing about this is a surprise. There was an article on Fox this morning about this. An official report has come out. On average, the $15/hour employee paycheck is $125 less since the wage hike. Remember Washington state's minimum wage is around $10. It used to be the highest in the nation but I don't know about now. And the jobs have disappeared to some extent. NO SURPRISE.
No, it wasn't such a good idea. Raising the minimum wage, among other things, would eliminate jobs. Ordering businesses to pay entry-level workers more will make them hire fewer of them, and consider replacing more workers with robots or computers. That’s good if you are in the robot or computer business, but not so good if you are trying to combat unemployment. It would reduce the incentive for low-wage workers to get an education and move up to a higher-paying job. The lower the minimum wage, the more eager a minimum wage worker would be to enroll in a community college course at night, improve his or her skills, and apply for a higher-paying job. Making the entry-level jobs higher paying increases the risk that workers will get stuck in them for longer instead of moving on to something more rewarding.
Raising the minimum wage is also a sneaky way to increase welfare spending and raise taxes. Raising taxes to spend more on welfare is a political loser. But raising the minimum wage puts money in the pockets of working poor people, at the expense of business owners (and of consumers who would pay in the form of higher prices). If politicians want to increase the earned income tax credit or other work-related welfare benefits, they should do the hard work of building political support for such policies, rather than choosing the roundabout approach of a minimum wage increase. This is but one of many ways the Liberals have concocted to urge the destruction and collapse of the United States.
Benedict Arnold 