Welp I was just the person testifying at a congressional hearing who had to be told she was on mute.
This is a hearing on the minimum wage and omg before this I had mistakenly let myself believe that the myth that min wage workers are teenagers had been debunked.
PEOPLE. Only ONE IN TEN workers who would benefit from a $15 min wage in 2025 are teenagers.
PEOPLE. Only ONE IN TEN workers who would benefit from a $15 min wage in 2025 are teenagers.
Wow there is a lot of confusion about the impact of minimum wage increases on prices. The facts: it is true that *some* of the impact of minimum wage increases is passed along in the form of higher prices. 3/
But to put it in perspective, consider this: increasing the min wage to $15 in 2025 will increase the total wages going to low-wage workers by $107 billion. But total personal consumption expenditures annually are over $14 trillion! 4/
The $107 billion is well under one percent of total personal consumption expenditures. So even if the entire amount were passed on in the form of higher prices (which won’t happen), it would still have a barely perceptible effect on the overall price level as it was phased in. 5/
And, any detectable effect would happen *only* during the phase-in period. After reaching the new level and moving to regular indexing, the impact on inflation would be zero. 6/
(Actually, after reaching the new level, the impact on inflation from regular indexing to median wages could be negative, since median wages have grown more slowly than productivity & prices in recent decades—slow growth which, all else equal, puts downward pressure on inflation)
Near the beginning of this thread I pointed out only 1 in 10 people who would get a raise if the min wage is raised to $15 in 2025 are teens. Many have pointed out that teens deserve a decent wage too and I am sorry for potentially implying otherwise by not saying it explicitly!
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