Chicago "Cook County" Approves $13.00 hr Minimum Wage (health insurance, to buy)

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by EddieOlSkool

Any actual concrete evidence that this has happened?

There are plenty of studies on this. Here are a couple..

https://news.uci.edu/research/minimu...udy-reaffirms/

https://www.cbo.gov/publication/44995

Per the latter study, the $10.10 option would cost 1/2 million jobs. the $9 option would cost 100k jobs. So per the Congressional Budget Office, there is a definite correlation between job losses and raising the minimum wage. I don't think anyone can seriously dispute this.

No one studied the $13 option for one county located in a large metropolitan area which has border counties without such a rule. I imagine because most would think that would be laughable.

[NealIRC]

Originally Posted by BRU67

There are plenty of studies on this. Here are a couple..

https://news.uci.edu/research/minimu...udy-reaffirms/

https://www.cbo.gov/publication/44995

Per the latter study, the $10.10 option would cost 1/2 million jobs. the $9 option would cost 100k jobs. So per the Congressional Budget Office, there is a definite correlation between job losses and raising the minimum wage. I don't think anyone can seriously dispute this.

No one studied the $13 option for one county located in a large metropolitan area which has border counties without such a rule. I imagine because most would think that would be laughable.

McDonald's almost 2 years ago, laid off 63 employees at their headquarters.

McDonald's to cut 63 headquarters jobs in cost reduction | Reuters

(Not due to the minimum wage increse.). It was just to reduce costs.

I saw an article that even Macy's plans to close 100 stores nationwide. Same with Staples.

Posted this summer, McDonald's lays off 70 employees in their accounting place in Ohio:

Layoffs loom at McDonald

Now this below article, is directly to the minimum wage:

McDonald’s CEO warns $15 minimum wage will lead to ‘massive layoffs’ as fast food industry replaces workers with self-serve kiosks

Former McDonald’s CEO Ed Rensi believes that a $15 minimum wage will push companies to set up self-service kiosks to save money.

In 2011, McDonald’s ordered over 7,000 kiosks to replace employees in European countries where costs are higher.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by NealIRC

McDonald's almost 2 years ago, laid off 63 employees at their headquarters.

McDonald's to cut 63 headquarters jobs in cost reduction | Reuters

(Not due to the minimum wage increse.). It was just to reduce costs.

I saw an article that even Macy's plans to close 100 stores nationwide. Same with Staples.

Posted this summer, McDonald's lays off 70 employees in their accounting place in Ohio:

Layoffs loom at McDonald

Now this below article, is directly to the minimum wage:

McDonald’s CEO warns $15 minimum wage will lead to ‘massive layoffs’ as fast food industry replaces workers with self-serve kiosks

Former McDonald’s CEO Ed Rensi believes that a $15 minimum wage will push companies to set up self-service kiosks to save money.

In 2011, McDonald’s ordered over 7,000 kiosks to replace employees in European countries where costs are higher.

Wages are a market, driven by supply and demand. When the gov't has to intervene to ensure people get a living wage, that means something is seriously broken. Raising the minimum wage is just a band aid. It also won't help because employers who are subject to it will simply lay off or not hire workers, or, in this case, simply relocate to a neighboring Chicagoland county or NW Indiana.

The real solution is to attract good paying manufacturing and other jobs back to the area, which will create a demand for low skilled labor and raise wage rates through natural market forces; i.e. labor will be in greater demand so the price for labor will go up across the board.

[jwaiter]

The facts, the evidence, performed on local areas who have raised their minimum wages shows an increase in hiring and an increase in business profits. It's been a win-win for everyone.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/artic...-minimum-wages

"ECONOMICS
Doomsayers Keep Getting It Wrong on Higher Minimum Wages
OCT 21, 2016 1:38 PM EDT
By
Barry Ritholtz
In 2014, Seattle passed an ordinance to eventually raise the minimum wage in the city to $15 an hour, giving the Pacific Northwest city the highest pay floor in the U.S.

The ink wasn’t even dry on the wage legislation when the dire warnings of economic collapse began. Unemployment would skyrocket, economic growth in the state would be hurt, restaurants and small businesses would close en masse. The deserved punishment would be swift and harsh.

But a funny thing happened on Seattle’s way to economic collapse: the city thrived. Restaurants didn’t close -- they actually prospered -- and new restaurant openings rose. Unemployment fell, most recently to less than 4 percent, more than a full percentage point lower than the national rate. By all accounts, the city on the Puget Sound is booming.

How did the doomsayers get it so wrong? "

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by jwaiter

The facts, the evidence, performed on local areas who have raised their minimum wages shows an increase in hiring and an increase in business profits. It's been a win-win for everyone.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/artic...-minimum-wages

"ECONOMICS
Doomsayers Keep Getting It Wrong on Higher Minimum Wages
OCT 21, 2016 1:38 PM EDT
By
Barry Ritholtz
In 2014, Seattle passed an ordinance to eventually raise the minimum wage in the city to $15 an hour, giving the Pacific Northwest city the highest pay floor in the U.S.

The ink wasn’t even dry on the wage legislation when the dire warnings of economic collapse began. Unemployment would skyrocket, economic growth in the state would be hurt, restaurants and small businesses would close en masse. The deserved punishment would be swift and harsh.

But a funny thing happened on Seattle’s way to economic collapse: the city thrived. Restaurants didn’t close -- they actually prospered -- and new restaurant openings rose. Unemployment fell, most recently to less than 4 percent, more than a full percentage point lower than the national rate. By all accounts, the city on the Puget Sound is booming.

How did the doomsayers get it so wrong? "

Oh, they "prospered." Sounds like someone's opinion more than science. And the 4% unemployment rate they cite is total unemployment across all sectors. The job growth in higher wage sectors in that region could be offsetting job losses in the low wage sectors, which could result in an overall lower unemployment rate even if the minimum wage increase was having negative effects.

A recent study by the University of Washington does, in fact, mention this, stating that a surging regional economy in the Seattle area has made the impact of the minimum wage increase difficult to isolate.

Minimum Wage Study: Effects of Seattle wage hike modest, may be overshadowed by strong economy | UW Today

Does Chicago have a surging regional economy? In what I call the Emerald City, maybe slightly. But how about the south and west sides? You think the increase is going to help in those areas? I guess the good thing about the Cook County mandate, if you can call it good, is that we'll be able to see job losses more clearly and thus gain evidence that these minimum wage increases, while well intentioned, do not work as intended. As the Washington University study said:

Although the ordinance appears to have boosted wages for the city’s lowest-paid workers, the benefits of the increase may have been partly offset by fewer hours worked per person and slightly less overall employment, the Seattle Minimum Wage Study research team found. Estimated income gains for the average worker were modest – on the order of a few dollars a week – and sensitive to methodological choices.

[NealIRC]

Originally Posted by BRU67

Sounds like someone's opinion more than science.

Well it says in the article's url that it's a "view."

Also, at the bottom:

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Anyways, I do believe that certain businesses will go up as people who are paid minimum wage, get raises.

I think the vast majority of Chicagoans (and I'm not talking White Chicagoans, I'm talking all races) will, what will they increase spending on if they had a raise? Why, more money for alcohol, beer, and cigarettes.

Certain local restaurants that cater to poor people may have businesses go up (like local taco restaurants). But that doesn't mean the Signature Room will see an uptick in customers dining out. In fact, most restaurants have to increase the prices of some of their items when minimum wage goes up - it's just a matter of - who are the minimum wage workers, and what are they willing to spend their money on? My vote goes to drugs.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by NealIRC

Well it says in the article's url that it's a "view."

Also, at the bottom:

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Anyways, I do believe that certain businesses will go up as people who are paid minimum wage, get raises.

I think the vast majority of Chicagoans (and I'm not talking White Chicagoans, I'm talking all races) will, what will they increase spending on if they had a raise? Why, more money for alcohol, beer, and cigarettes.

Certain local restaurants that cater to poor people may have businesses go up (like local taco restaurants). But that doesn't mean the Signature Room will see an uptick in customers dining out. In fact, most restaurants have to increase the prices of some of their items when minimum wage goes up - it's just a matter of - who are the minimum wage workers, and what are they willing to spend their money on? My vote goes to drugs.

At the core, this is, essentially, an attempt to transfer wealth, which is ongoing liberal policy. I don't want to get into a debate about the morals of this, and we don't really have to here. The bottom line is that, most likely, real world take home pay will not rise by that much, if at all. Employers will give fewer hours and benefits to existing employees and will hire fewer new employees. And those who can do so will open up shop in neighboring counties with lower minimum wages.

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by NealIRC

So basically, the rich don't ever take a hit. If they were forced to pay their employees higher wages, then they would lay more people off.

Besides which, it's not really accurate to characterize all employers as "the rich".

Many small-business owners certainly are not rich. If minimum wage goes up, they might be forced to lay off employees just to make ends meet.

[BRU67]

I think macroeconomics and microeconomics should be a requirement for liberal arts degrees, as well as bachelor of science degrees.

[coldwine]

Originally Posted by BRU67

I think macroeconomics and microeconomics should be a requirement for liberal arts degrees, as well as bachelor of science degrees.

I took both as an undergraduate, as well as econometrics. And those courses were taken at a university quite famous for its economists.

Economics is always wrong. Always. A fundamental flaw in the field is the extreme disconnect between the bull**** theory and subsequent failure to course correct. It is never the economist's fault; it is always a "failure of the model" in one sense or another.

There was quite recently a book published on this very subject: the failure of macroeconomics. Even more recently, there was an amusing tiff between two world-renowned economists over this subject.

I do not know how many people stay in touch with economists-- they have blogs these days-- but the field has never been regarded with less respect than it is right now.