As gwern pointed out above, the theoretical effects of minimum wage on unemployment have been quite hard to prove statistically. People have studied the effects of increases in unemployment rates, and the differences in employment between neighboring states with different minimum wage levels, and haven’t been able to find statistically significant correlations between increases in the minimum wage and employment.
This is something economists are quite split on now; there was a recent study where something like 40% of economists thought minimum wages increases unemployment, 40% don’t think it has any impact on unemployment, and 20% aren’t sure.
I will say that if the fairly low levels of minimum wage we have in the US have any effect on unemployment right all, it is most likely a pretty small effect, not nearly large enough to explain the larger trends in the economy.
As gwern pointed out above, the theoretical effects of minimum wage on unemployment have been quite hard to prove statistically. People have studied the effects of increases in unemployment rates, and the differences in employment between neighboring states with different minimum wage levels, and haven’t been able to find statistically significant correlations between increases in the minimum wage and employment.
This is something economists are quite split on now; there was a recent study where something like 40% of economists thought minimum wages increases unemployment, 40% don’t think it has any impact on unemployment, and 20% aren’t sure.
I will say that if the fairly low levels of minimum wage we have in the US have any effect on unemployment right all, it is most likely a pretty small effect, not nearly large enough to explain the larger trends in the economy.