11 Comments
Jan 24, 2021Liked by Brian Albrecht

Here we worked out the competitive case formally but when we revise it should cite mccloskey https://www.nber.org/papers/w22305

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Jan 22, 2021Liked by Brian Albrecht

Is there any paper or very specific argument as to why a minimum wage worker still employed, but with fewer hours and higher pay, would be worse off?

I've reviewed a few pessimistic MW review papers on elasticity, but none that imply fewer hours at higher wages would result in smaller paychecks for directly affected workers.

On a personal level, I have to confess I'm thrilled to work as few hours as possible at the highest wage, so I have trouble understanding the downside.

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Thanks for this excellent overview! It's now part of my toolkit on minimum wage. (I found my way here from Don Boudreaux's link.)

I used to tell my children, when we talked about incentives, that this is what a minimum wage often looks like: https://www.forbes.com/sites/edrensi/2018/07/11/mcdonalds-says-goodbye-cashiers-hello-kiosks/

Those companies with larger numbers of options for change at the margin will actively reduce their wage costs, partly to reduce costs and partly to reduce exposure to the increasing-cost effects of ongoing political interference.

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Besides the possibility of job loses, government unions base their contracts on the minimum wage, which means the government will be spending more tax dollars. Another thing that is not being mentioned is that the companies paying these high wages will adjust their prices higher to offset the new wages, meaning everyone including those making minimum wage will pay more.

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