Mark Price on raising the minimum wage

Mark Price, a graduate from the Utah PhD program, writes here on why raising the minimum wage is not just good for workers, but for the whole economy. He says a:

"single fact goes a long way to debunking one of the most repeated reasons for opposing minimum wage hikes: A higher minimum wage will kill jobs, opponents say. 

Except that it doesn't. 

Businesses are much more likely to find other ways to deal with higher payroll costs. They will find ways to increase efficiencies or reduce waste. 

Beyond that, research shows that employment doesn't show any measurable change in states that increase their minimum when compared with states that don't. That's true even for industries most affected by a change, like restaurants. 

Of course a higher minimum wage will also mean businesses that use minimum-wage labor will have to pay more per hour of labor. But in the real world, lots of things change when the minimum wage goes up. 

They might be able to reduce training costs, for example. Or they can reduce turnover, which may also translate into higher productivity. 

The bottom line is that a higher minimum wage will boost wages for a group of workers that will likely spend that money boosting the local economy. And a higher minimum wage will also lead to more innovation in business practices. It's hard to find a more positive vision of the American entrepreneur and American economy than that."