"It will kill jobs," Greitens said of the increase, according to the Post-Dispatch. "And despite what you hear from liberals, it will take money out of people's pockets."
People just got a raise. You are taking money out of people's pockets.
The Missouri governor's claim that raising the minimum wage "will kill jobs" is unfounded from a research perspective.
In 2016, the National Employment Law Project released an exhaustive reportlooking at every federal minimum wage hike since 1938. Ultimately, the investigators found year-over-year employment increased 68% of the time after each wage hike. What's more, the industries most affected by minimum wage more often saw jumps in employment: 73% of the time in retail, 82% in leisure and hospitality.
"These basic economic indicators show no correlation between federal minimum-wage increases and lower employment levels," the authors wrote. The only times when minimum wage increases correlated to a decline in employment were during or near recessions. In most other cases, there was a neutral or positive relationship.
When it was first created in 1938, the US federal minimum wage was 25 cents. As a percentage of GDP per capita, that would equate to a wage of about $20 an hour.
Eric Greitens, what are you reading? I want to see the stats that back up your statements.
"If we're making $10 an hour, we're going to go right back out and spend that money," Wanda Roberts, a St. Louis minimum-wage work, told CBS News. With the reversal, she said she'd "go back to struggling."
