The unintended consequence of raising the minimum wage: The poor lose hours, jobs

Raising the minimum wage frequently has unintended consequences, such as the loss of jobs when employers can’t afford to pay workers more than the business earns. Missouri actually lowered its minimum wage with the passage of House Bill 1194 to save businesses and bring back jobs.

Melissa Francis of Fox Business returned to "The Chris Salcedo Show" today to discuss the effects minimum wage hikes have on the very people they are intended to help. She told Chris Salcedo about a study conducted in Seattle, Washington, where the minimum wage was raised to $13 an hour in 2016.

To compensate for the cost to businesses, employers gave their employees an average of nine percent less hours, which translated to an earnings loss of $125 per month. She called the Missouri effort “genius, genius," because small franchise owners have a really small margin -- sometimes pennies. They can't afford large jumps in the minimum wage.

The only other solution is to make up for the short fall is to raise the price of products, which drives away customers. She said the whole point of entry level, minimum wage jobs is to give people with no experience a chance to get going in the employment sector. With training and a honing of skills, people get the experience to get higher level jobs and wages.

"The left has gotten so great at dominating the message that we don't even believe that math any longer; we don't trust our own logic," she said.

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