Economists from both sides of the aisle oppose it. Democrats in local government across the country have avoided it. Democrats in Congress don’t even abide by it. And yet on Thursday, Democratic Party leaders joined forces with failed presidential candidate and avowed socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to endorse a $15-an-hour federal minimum wage.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Democratic National Committee vice-chair Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and others stood with Sanders and declared support for increasing the minimum cost of hiring workers as one plank of an economic agenda they believe will endear them to the working-class.
The move is a curious one considering that the working-class overwhelmingly rejected the Democrats last November in favor of Republicans promising faster economic growth, more social mobility, and a stronger middle-class — all of which history has proven are risked by increasing the minimum wage.
As always, Congress is late to the party. Several left-wing local governments have experimented with minimum wage increases lately, and the results are as expected — prompting other local Democrat leaders to abandon the idea.
Seattle passed a $15 phased-in minimum wage law in 2014. From January to September 2015, the city’s restaurant industry lost 700 jobs, while the industry gained thousands across the rest of the state not subject to the new mandate. In Washington, D.C., local officials raised the minimum wage to $10.50 in July 2015. Over the first half of 2016, D.C. lost more restaurant jobs than in any six-month period in 15 years — while surrounding areas of Maryland and Virginia flourished.
Since then, Democratic mayors in Cleveland, Minneapolis, and Baltimore have all come out against $15 minimum wage mandates. They made the right call, especially for cities facing rampant poverty and lack of economic opportunity for those most in need.
Nearly three-quarters of U.S.-based economists — including economists from the Obama and Clinton administrations — also oppose the $15 federal minimum wage that Democrat leaders endorsed. Most agree it will have negative effects on youth employment and the overall number of available jobs.
Democrats talk often about the minimum wage as a tool to uplift struggling workers, but Census Bureau data show that more than 60 percent of the poor don’t have a job. Not only would they not benefit from a minimum wage increase, it would make finding a job to begin with even more difficult.
By raising the cost of hiring entry-level, low-skilled workers, a minimum wage increase would disproportionately harm the poor, young people, and people of color — those most in need of mobility.
Moreover, economists at Cornell and American University found no reduction in poverty associated with minimum wage increases, and researchers at San Diego State examined 35 years of data and found minimum wage increases have little to no effect on participation in means-tested welfare programs.
The Congressional Budget Office has yet to analyze the impact of a $15 federal minimum wage, but they found that a $10.10 minimum wage would kill 500,000 jobs, 57 percent of which belong to women.
The economic data on the harmful impact of minimum wage increases is clear: They drive small businesses into the ground, disproportionately harm women, young people, and minorities, and have no impact on poverty while worsening economic opportunity. But perhaps the most telling evidence is from the congressional Democrats themselves who endorsed the $15 federal minimum wage Thursday.
While seeking to impose their harmful agenda on the rest of America, they do not abide by its tenets themselves. Neither Schumer, Pelosi nor Sanders pay their own interns $15 an hour. In fact, of the 198 co-sponsors of the 2015 “Raise the Wage Act” that would have increased the minimum wage to $12 an hour, fully 94 percent did not pay their interns a dime.
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and a minimum wage increase is the perfect example. For congressional Democrats’ latest political gambit, it’s also paved with hypocrisy — the public should ignore it accordingly.
Akash Chougule (@AkashJC) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is the director of policy at Americans for Prosperity.
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