Last year I asked I asked, “Why don’t reports on minimum-wage hikes cite mainstream economic thinking on it?” In response to one of the many articles in which reporters write about the issue, I wrote:
It would be nice if the reporter had spoken to an economist about the idea. After all, the negative impacts of the minimum wage is one of the items about which economists are in greatest agreement.
Today Laura Leslie writes for WRAL that “Lawmakers, worker advocates push for doubling NC minimum wage to $15 an hour.” (Nota bene: That would be more than doubling it.)
Guess what her article doesn’t contain?
She cites Democrats, worker advocates, two fast-food workers, a policy advocate on the left, a businessman, and Gov. Roy Cooper. That’s it. Like other reports on the subject, this was barely more than “an advocacy piece masquerading as journalism.”
Meanwhile, yesterday I wrote about how recent economic research on the minimum wage had not contained any surprises. Minimum-wage hikes result in fewer hours worked for the fewer (higher-wage) minimum-wage workers, and higher crime results from more low-skilled workers being left idle and frustrated at lower job prospects.
