US Election 2004

Economist Richard C. Healy, Jr. shared a personal story as an example of how increasing the minimum wage hurts job seekers:

When I was in high school, I got a job as an usher in one of six movie theaters in the downtown area of my hometown. There were 11 of us, plus a chief usher and an assistant. We were a mixture of teenagers and older men between jobs or working two jobs. There was constant turnover. Approximately once each month, an usher would leave and immediately another would be hired.

By the end of my first year, I had received four raises and a promotion to chief usher. I was charged with making schedules and assignments for the 13 of us. Early in the second year, the assistant manager called me to his office to tell me that the legal minimum wage had been raised by the exact amount of my four raises. He said it was unfair, but he was unable to give me a raise. All 13 of us were to make the same hourly rate.

Within a month, another usher left, but, although the assistant manager had a list of applicants, he told me that no new usher would be hired. Now we had 12 jobs. No one was fired. No one was laid off. No one went on unemployment. But a job was lost and it was clearly the result of the increase in the minimum wage.

In the months that followed, six more vacancies were created but not one new usher was hired. Because I was the seventh to leave, I cannot say for certain how many more jobs were lost. I also cannot say for certain what happened in thousands of theaters across our country or what happened in other industries. But I can say with certainty that seven of 13 jobs in my workplace were lost and that it was a direct result of the increase in the minimum wage.  [R. Healy Jr., An Economics Lesson on Ballot Question 6, Las Vegas Review Journal, 10/30/2004]

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• #2 Comment from huggybear211 
  10/31/04 1:51 AM | Permalink

  You are so correct Ive seen eating places not replace workers also and I think if u earn it .It is yours so if u earn 2million @I earn 30 thousand we should the same precent in taxes
                                                    franky g
                                                   hairstylist
                                                     10/31/04
• #1 Comment from mrdad3 
  10/30/04 4:59 PM | Permalink

  This is exactly what will happen all across the country if John Kerry gets elceted and follows through with his threat to raise minimum wage. It is a smoke screen just design to sway voters to his side. If he tries to raise minimum wage to spur economic growth, we will find out that in fact it will hurt the growth and we again will find ourselves in an Democrat created recession.
  
  The way to spur growth is to give consumers more money to spend, but not to the detriment of the businesses that create the jobs. Businesses will not create new jobs unless there is a demand for their products and they will actually see a profit.