On May 14, an opinion piece by Martin Jones was published attacking efforts to increase the minimum wage (“Maine Voices: King, Collins must understand that higher minimum wage won’t help low-income people”).

He makes several points, supported only by one figure from the recent Congressional Budget Office report. Please note that the CBO estimate of a loss of 500,000 jobs was based solely on a midpoint between several studies, without evaluating the credibility of those studies, so the number is only marginally valid.

Mr. Jones also states, “Increases in the minimum wage are a giant price-fixing exercise and almost always end badly,” without providing any basis for that statement.

In fact, 70 years of minimum-wage increases have shown that the impact of minimum-wage increases has been universally positive.

They usually increase market demand by providing lower-income individuals with more money to spend for trivial items, such as food, clothes, transportation and a home.


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