economicpolicyjournal.com
January 14, 2014

Seven recipients of the Nobel Prize in ecoomics were among 75 economists endorsing an increase in the minimum wage for U.S. workers, reports Bloomberg.

In a letter released today, the group called for the hourly minimum wage to reach $10.10 by 2016 from its current $7.25, and then be indexed for inflation thereafter. They said “the weight” of economic research shows higher pay doesn’t lead to fewer jobs.

Past increases in hourly pay have had “little or no negative effect on the employment of minimum wage workers, even during times of weakness in the labor market,” the economists wrote. “A minimum wage increase could have a small stimulative effect on the economy as low-wage workers spend their additional earnings.”

More than anything, this is probably a reflection o the true value of the Nobel Prize in economics and the poor quality of thinking by many who are awarded the prize.

These “economists” apparently hold their minimum wage position with a straight face, when it is clear that the least skilled, black youth, already suffer from the current minimum wage, with an unemployment rate of 35.5%.

(ht Prashanth Perumal)

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