Higher minimum wages increase poverty in poor neighborhoods, study finds
Having actually run a business that needs to make payroll, I have tried to point out to my colleagues, the ones who self-identify as economic justice ministers, how a government artificially messing with pay structure leads to unemployment. They tend to disregard this observation as it doesn't feed a narrative that casts them in the heroic role as "liberator of the oppressed*".
[*For those unfamiliar with neo-Marxism, which is the prevailing ideology, society is divided into three groups: The Oppressed, The Oppressors, and The Liberators of the Oppressed. University professors, Protestant clergy, most of the media and entertainment world, and random screamers on social media see themselves as members of the latter group. It is a tricky ideology to navigate as the definition of The Oppressed and The Oppressors can change rapidly to suit the needs of The Liberators. That's why there is this...thing...called "intersectionality". We'll talk about that one in the future.]
Here's a simple narrative that is actually real:
1. A guitar business has three minimum-wage trainees. For each, this is his or her first job.
2. The state raises the minimum wage.
3. The business is required to increase the price of product to cover the wage increase.
4. Sales drop as the prices are no longer competitive.
5. Adjustments to the bottom line must be made; one employee is laid off and one has his hours reduced by 50%.
6. End result of "fairness": One and one-half jobs lost.
7. Secondary result of "fairness": Those who are not wage-earners, but supported the wage increase, get to claim victory on behalf of The Oppressed. As they tend to be salaried, rather than wage-earning, employees, they are unaffected either way. Yay, Liberators.