Minimum Wage Hike Likely Responsible For 1/4 Of Lost Jobs Last Month

Proof • August 11, 2009

Here’s an interesting tid-bit from the Heritage Foundation about July’s job loss numbers. Remember that the labor demographic most likely to make the minimum wage is teenagers, who are often working part-time jobs, summer jobs or after-school jobs. Since 2007 we’ve seen 2 $0.70/hour hikes in the minimum wage, with a third $0.70/hour hike hitting at the end of July. Given that 1/4 of the people who lost their jobs in July were teenagers, it’s likely that business owners were shedding entry-level, low-skill jobs before the minimum wage hike hit:

Another factor that will boost the unemployment rate in future months will be the fate of teenage workers. Teens accounted for a quarter of the decline in the labor force last month. July’s jobs report was conducted before the minimum wage took effect. Therefore, it is likely that the job market for teenagers will be further weakened by the minimum wage increase. Teenagers already have the highest unemployment rate at 23.8 percent, which is more than double the national average.

Here’s a chart showing long-term unemployment trends among low-skill workers (teenagers and workers without a high school degree) as compared to all workers and workers with a college degree:

Note that the trends shoot sharply upward staring in 2007, around the time of the first minimum wage hike and that the demographics with the fastest growing unemployment are teenagers and workers with low levels of education.
Meaning, essentially, that the minimum wage is causing unemployment among teenagers and the working poor. Or, in other words, the people it was intended to help.
As usual, a liberal policy accomplishes the exact opposite of what was intended.

Tags: Asshats, Domestic Issues, Politics

http://Array jimmypop

if you look on a percentage basis didnt everyone double? face it, 9 months after the liberals took over everything collapsed. i dont think it was the min wage specifically, but it certainly didnt help. more importantly, i think we are all damaged more by artificial wage inflation than anything else.
http://newyork.joonbug.com/ Will

“9 months after the liberals took over everything collapsed”

catastrophic collapses don’t happen overnight my friend. i’m sure you’re a proponent of trickle down economics…it’s a damn shame we didn’t send a man to mars!!!!!
http://www.rabidamerican.net/ Rabid American

if you look on a percentage basis didnt everyone double? face it, 9 months after the liberals took over everything collapsed
The Dems had Congress and the Senate for 2 years before this collapse……….

My take?

1) They wanted to drive down the economy for the ’08 election and it got out of hand…….
2) They revealed their traitorous actions to Bush, through Paulson, and caused him to act like his hair was on fire…..
3) Congress (with the impending Kenyan Sock-Puppet’s victory) robbed the treasury…..

It’s as good an explanation as any……….
robert108

Thirty years of Dem social engineering home loan mandates, plus thirty years of Carter energy policies that obstructed domestic energy development finally took their toll, even on this economic system. Dem wasteful social spending goes back to the Thirties. We just can’t afford Dem spending, folks.
The so-called “minimum wage”(actually a pay raise for all union workers and the union slush funds) is economically unsound, as anyone who understands the Law of Supply and Demand can tell you.
jimmypop

Thirty years of Dem social engineering home loan mandates, plus thirty years of Carter energy policies that obstructed domestic energy development finally took their toll, even on this economic system. Dem wasteful social spending goes back to the Thirties. We just can’t afford Dem spending, folks.

yup. its easy to prove the libbys have driven us over a cliff. the problem i have is the fact the repubs were napping in the back seat.
http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/ goon

“For the first time since the Depression, the American economy has added virtually no jobs in the private sector over a 10-year period. The total number of jobs has grown a bit, but that is only because of government hiring.

That is because of the US Government’s repressive tax policies. The USA has high corp tax rates.
Bat One

As usual, a liberal policy accomplishes the exact opposite of what was intended.

That should read, “… the exact opposite of the stated intention.” Socialism, or extracting golden eggs without killing off the goose that lays them, has never worked. And its a rare lefty indeed who is candid about his policy objectives. So-called “health care reform” is only the latest example.
welder4

I agree Rabid American: it was set up to go down but they ran into a wall trying to get it back up and now they are in a panic. It is as good as a theory as one could come up with . They have a hot rock and their pants and no way to get rid of it ./ it will blister them in 2010 .
jasonfm

This is from the second paragraph of the article by the ignoramus that WOOF linked to in “Smart Money”:

The truth is that while the 35% corporate income tax rate is high indeed, the creativity and global reach of U.S. corporations make them among the most lightly levied.

He goes on to say that the % of GDP that American corps. are effectively levied is less than European ones.
So, if I’m reading you/him correctly, SHIPPING JOBS OVER SEAS, and otherwise operating in manners to limit their affectedness of the US’s punishing tax system, IS WHAT MAKES THEM SURVIVE AND PROFIT.
Liberals (and they’ve tricked most of America into doing it too) are always CRYING about businesses using “tax havens” and “Shipping Jobs Overseas”.
Is the hypocrisy too hard to see here. I couldn’t read another word of what he said after that…
WOOFX

Open the window, see the big picture.

“For the first time since the Depression, the American economy has added virtually no jobs in the private sector over a 10-year period. The total number of jobs has grown a bit, but that is only because of government hiring.

For the decade, there was a net gain of 121,000 private sector jobs, according to the survey of employers conducted each month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In an economy with 109 million such jobs, that indicated an annual growth rate for the 10 years of 0.01 percent.”

Smell the Coffee
WOOFX

Not.
Smart Money

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Minimum Wage Hike Likely Responsible For 1/4 Of Lost Jobs Last Month

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