Republicans Against Raising the Minimum Wage Make Baseless Claims

The Right Wing Republican organization, the Heritage Foundation published a memo  last week on why raising the minimum wage would be an “outright disaster” for American workers. The memo parrots familiar conservative objections to minimum wage laws, making use of virtually no data while reciting familiar capitalistic slogans. Think Progress decided to look into the memo’s major claims:

Heritage Claim: Minimum wage increases unemployment

Heritage Evidence for Claim: One-third of surveyed economists at top universities “agree outright” with the statement, “a minimum wage increases unemployment among the young and unskilled” (yes, 1/3 agreement is actually cited as proof of “consensus").

FACT: In three states with recent minimum wage increases, data shows the increase had no effect on job growth. A well-regarded 1994 study determined that an increase in the New Jersey minimum wage did not lead to any measurable impact on employment.

Heritage Claim: States with high minimum wages experience economic “stagnation.”

Heritage Evidence for Claim: None

FACT: Hawaii, Delaware, and Vermont, three states with higher minimum wages, were among the 15 states with unemployment rates less than 5 percent as of December 2003, when the national average was 5.7 percent.

Heritage Claim: Minimum wage increases have no effect on “real wages.”

Heritage Evidence for Claim: Since 1997, real wages have risen despite no increase in the federal minimum wage (indeed, this is not really evidence, but it is the only thing offered).

FACT: Numerous studies have found that a minimum wage increase has a “ripple effect” for workers above the “old” minimum wage rate but below the “new” minimum wage rate. These workers often receive a new wage rate that is above the new minimum wage (Spriggs and Klein 1994, pp. 12-13).

FACT: A minimum wage increase of $1.85 by 2006 would raise the wages of 7.4 million workers.
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