Can someone answer my question about the minimum-wage hike?

[eniwetok]

93. not a question IF the MW has ever been raised

The question isn't whether the MW has ever been raised before... and it obviously reached it's peak value in 1968 after a unsteady rise from 1950. In today's dollars that would be about $11. And I've repeatedly argued in other forums using BEA and BLS numbers that the higher MW didn't seem to cause any problems in about 75% or so of the cases... and even when there may have been a uptick in unemployment... who really knew what the cause was and whatever it was disappeared soon. Some MW hikes took place on Jan 1st of a year and that was when seasonal XMas help was being laid off. That's a problem with economics is that there are too many variables in play.

The real only questions are how much should we aim for and how fast should it be phased in. I've argued that any NATIONAL MW... the lowest any unskilled worker in even a depressed area of the nation would get should go back to that 1968 level and states or cities can go higher. As it turns out this $11 is just 20c lower than the HIGHEST OECD MW... which in 2014 was Luxembourg. For that I've been called a right wing shill and supporting predatory employment. The irrationally of some here at DU is frightening. This $11.20 was derived using a standardized measure called parity purchasing power to avoid distortions caused by exchange rates. We also have to remember that in 1968 we had a protectionist economy and strong unions. The right and corporate Dems have done incalculable damage to the economy since then and it's become addicted to a depreciating MW. MW workers are being ripped off to the tune of $7300 a year. Given the US and the OECD context... $15 is uncharted territory... and I don't buy the empty reassurances. The ONLY real experiment here is what CA has done... to go state wide with $15... compared to NY's approach to wait and see for upstate at $12.50. Right now CA is at $10... so we won't know the impact on poor and rural areas for years.

From https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=MIN2AVE

USD 2014 Purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2014 dollars... hourly MW

United States $7.2
Canada $8.2
United Kingdom $8.2
Ireland $8.7
New Zealand $9.1
Netherlands $9.6
Belgium $10
Australia $10.9
France $10.9
Luxembourg $11.2

Some here dishonestly use a very high Australian MW but that's based on the exchange rate.. which would be $15.20 in 2014. But the PPP rate is $10.90 US. PPP exchange rates help to minimize misleading international comparisons that can arise with the use of market exchange rates.