“Minimum wage is often touted as a way to address poverty, and working poverty; my professional opinion is that it is a two edge sword and sometimes it’s the bad edge of the sword that can dominate.”
The above words come from Professor Jacob Vigdor, who led the University of Washington study on Seattle’s minimum-wage law. The professor also had this to say:
“Who are the winners and who are the losers here? If we’ve enacted a policy that is harming the most vulnerable people in our local economy then I really think we need to stop and think twice about whether this is a good idea.”
Erin Shannon, director of the Center for Small Business at the Washington Policy Center, has pored over the university’s study of Seattle’s $15 minimum wage and has pulled these other quotes from Professor Vigdor in the final of her three-part analysis of it.
The first of Shannon’s three-part analysis of the UW study ran in the NFIB/Washington e-newsletter on May 19, the second part in the June 2 newsletter. Part 3 will run in the June 16 newsletter to NFIB members.
NFIB has included Shannon’s three-part analysis along with other stories on Washington state’s minimum-wage battles in this special page, Washington Minimum Wage Watch.
