EPI Research (Page 5)

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  Early Experiences with Chicago’s July 1st Minimum Wage Increase

  June 2015

  In December 2014, the Chicago City Council approved a law raising the city’s minimum wage by nearly 60 percent, to $13 an hour, by 2019. A press release from the office of Mayor Rahm Emanuel trumpeted the wage hike as a boon for the city. Small business owners were less sure, expressing concerns about the unintended consequences of labor cost increases that couldn’t be offset through higher prices. The first stage of the wage […]
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  Measuring the Cost of a Higher Minimum Wage for New York’s Fast Food Restaurants

  June 2015

  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced in a New York Times op-ed this spring his intention to empanel a state wage board to consider a minimum wage increase specific to the fast food industry. All three members of the governor’s wage board—who represent the public, labor, and the business community—are on-record supporting a minimum wage increase, leading some critics to conclude that the outcome is a foregone conclusion. Still, the board will hear […]
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  Examining the Costs of the City of Oakland’s $12.25 Minimum Wage

  April 2015

  In November 2014, residents of the Bay Area cities of San Francisco and Oakland voted in favor of minimum wage increases for most businesses in the city limits. The San Francisco proposal will raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2018; in Oakland, the minimum wage rose by 36 percent to $12.25 an hour on March 1st. (The Oakland proposal also included […]
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  The Lasting Benefits of Early Work Experience

  August 2014

  The US labor market has recovered slowly but steadily in the years since the Great Recession officially ended in June 2009. But for young adults between the ages of 16 and 19, the recovery has been tepid at best: In the five year period since the summer of 2008, youth unemployment has averaged a staggering 23.5 percent, and the seasonally-adjusted rate was still north of […]
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  Minimum Wages and the Business Cycle: Does a Wage Hike Hurt More in a Weak Economy?

  January 2014 • Dr. Joseph Sabia

  In his 2013 State of the Union address, President Obama called for an increase in the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour. The following month, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Representative George Miller (D-CA) introduced a bill to raise the wage even higher to $10.10 an hour. One year later, President Obama as well as Congressmen Harkin and Miller have agreed on the $10.10 figure. […]
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  Counting the Cost: The Impact of an $8.25 New Jersey Minimum Wage on State and Local Government

  October 2013 • David Macpherson, William Even

  This fall, New Jersey voters will decide whether to alter the state Constitution to raise the minimum wage to $8.25 and then put it on autopilot to rise in future years. The debate in the state has focused on whether or not raising the minimum wage would reduce opportunities for the entry-level workforce. But there’s another cost to consider—the financial cost to state, county, and […]