Myths/raising the minimum wage hurts jobs/San Francisco
| Myth: Raising the minimum wage in San Francisco resulted in higher unemployment rates. |
Myth
In November 2014, San Francisco voters approved a ballot proposal to rapidly raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2018. Advocates claimed the policy would help employees make ends meet and perhaps even stimulate the economy in the process. Three months later, two popular local restaurants closed, citing the wage hike as a factor, with another expected to follow. Borderlands Books announced it would also close at the end of March, its owner said the $15 mandate proved more than his business could handle by raising prices or cutting costs.[1]
Reality
Unemployment in San Francisco has been on a steady decline since 2010; the minimum wage hike does not seem to have had any measurable effect.
The first stage of the increase had not even cut in as of the writing of the NY Post article[1] that made this claim, so it was kind of absurd to attempt to blame the rise for any business failures as of that time.
Caveat: the first stage of the rise only took effect in May 2015, so it is probably still too early to say for sure that it will have no negative effect – but it is not too early to say that those claiming a negative effect were not arguing honestly.
Keep checking Wolfram Alpha to see how this plays out.
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 2015-02-15 How to kill jobs & close doors — a minimum-wage warning to New York by Michael Saltsman