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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsStudy: Retail prices stable a year after Seattle minimum wage hike
http://www.retaildive.com/news/study-retail-prices-stable-a-year-after-seattle-minimum-wage-hike/417949/But a year after Seattle implemented significantly higher minimum pay, that outcome hasnt come to pass, to the surprise of even University of Washington researchers themselves....
62% of employers said they expected to raise prices of goods and services because of the higher wages, and 10% of employers said theyd be forced to move their business. But subsequent analysis, done through a combination of web scraping and in-person visits to stores and restaurants, found few price increases.
"We looked in grocery stores, drugstores and other types of retail outletswe were focusing on places where your middle class or low-income families would be more likely to shop," study leader Jacob Vigdor, a University of Washington public policy professor, told Fast Company. "The fact that we didn't find very many price increases in those types of outlets was a little bit more surprising to us.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)K&R
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)when we raised it to a relatively paltry $10. Jack in the Box threatened to make us drive to Santa Clara for a burger. Local chain Pizza My Heart (!) chimed in as well. At the end of the day: (crickets).
suffragette
(12,232 posts)There wasn't an immediate raise to $15. It's being phased in over a few years.
Glad to see similar results that chicken little forecasts in CA have likewise not happened.
Wounded Bear
(58,673 posts)Despite what the RW spinbots would have us believe, there is lots of time for businesses and workers to prepare for it.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)KG
(28,751 posts)whatthehey
(3,660 posts)Sure if you go from $7.25 to $15 in a labor-intensive industry overnight where min was the prevailing wage beforehand there might be some cost-plus inflation, but not the case here, or very many other places either. Even in my decidedly sub-Seattle COL area, entry level retail usually starts at $9.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)to a halt on this topic a few months ago when I asked them ("just curious," and they did bring it up) if they would oppose a 200% wage increase if it meant a 20% chance of being let go. Silence, then quip and change of subject from one of the quicker people. Two of them were business owners, a couple retired, and a couple still working who I feel sure must be hurting in this rural, low-pay area (she's a school cafeteria worker augmenting his loan processor income, very typical). And us.
I never got a chance to say I'd absolutely choose a chance to double my income. (It'd be over 200% here because this is Georgia. The min wage is so low the federal $7.25 kicks in -- for most.)
lostnfound
(16,186 posts)So many benefits