Re:How the Unchecked Power of Companies Is Destabilizing Gov...
by itake on Wednesday October 23, 2024 @08:01AM
(#41924081)
Item 5 seems weird to me…
1/ it pulls data from Uber eats. Many restaurants added “vanity” service charges to bills to provide visibility to the law changes. Instead of increasing menu prices, they add a mandatory service charge. I don’t know if this is accounted for in Uber eats takeout/delivery pricing
2/ most of the restaurants are fast food chains (think McDonalds). Full service business is included, but the sample size is much smaller. Even if it’s full service, the user isn’t “serviced” as these are delivery/takeout prices.
3/ the analysis is only national chain restaurants.
This is not an honest summary of the literature.
Every recent increase in the minimum wage in America has produced zero to positive local employment effects [1][2][3][4]. Per your source, however, it also causes (non-monetary) inflation [5]. Moreover, we find in other countries that there is a limit to the tactic: in France, minimum-wage increases significantly decrease employment [6].
So no, people expressing scepticism towards minimum-wage increases are being duped no more than those being told it's corporate propaganda. They're asking legitimate questions that have nuanced answers. (It's also reasonable to ask if rural Alabama might have a different minimum wage from New York City.)
[1] https://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/min-wage-2013-02...
[2] https://www.nber.org/papers/w4509
[3] https://sp2.upenn.edu/study-increasing-minimum-wage-has-posi...
[4] https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.35.1.3
[5] https://irle.berkeley.edu/publications/press-release/new-stu...
[6] https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&d...