Ball State study: Minimum wage led to job cuts

From the Indy Star:

Increasing the minimum wage was meant to raise the living standards of millions of Americans holding unskilled, entry-level positions.

But it may have led to the elimination of 550,000 jobs — opening the possibility that such wage levels should be revised, a new study from Ball State University.


The study of part-time workers monitored by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1999 to 2009 found that raising the minimum wage to $7.25 during the recession caused some businesses to scale back on filling vacant positions or eliminate jobs altogether, said Michael Hicks, director of Ball State's Center for Business and Economic Research.

The study was released Monday. ACCESS IT HERE.

"Minimum wage legislation has long been popular precisely because it holds the promise of helping low wage workers without an associated cost," Hicks said in a news release. "The truth has largely been that it has not helped workers because the United States had gone for two generations with the minimum wage largely trailing the hourly compensation of unskilled, entry level workers."

The federal minimum wage increased to $7.25 per hour in 2009. In the final step of a three-stage increase passed in 2007 when the minimum wage was only $5.15.

Another progressive sacred cow gets gored. This only substantiates what conservatives have always known and said. But you can bet that this won't get any attention on MSM or, if it does, the attention will be extremely critical.