For decades, conservative economists were uniformly opposed to increasing the minimum wage, arguing it would cause massive unemployment. Those arguments formed the basis of political opposition by Republicans at every level.
But as Eric Levitz writes in New York magazine, a new study shows exactly the opposite occurred:
A long list of cities and states enacted minimum wage increases of unprecedented size. Between 2014 and 2022, California increased its minimum wage by 56 percent in inflation-adjusted terms. Over a similar time period, New York raised its wage floor by 72 percent.
Permanent double digit unemployment did not ensue. In fact, not only did these historically large minimum wage hikes fail to put all fast food workers out of job, but a new study indicates that they actually induced job growth.