February 03, 2012
A Washington Post editorial on indexing the minimum wage told readers:
“at the margins, minimum-wage increases probably destroy jobs in small restaurants, landscaping and janitorial firms.”
It then added:
“as the city of San Francisco, which has just imposed a highest-in-the-nation $10.24 minimum, may soon find out.”
Whether or not the first claim is accurate, the warning to San Francisco clearly is not. San Francisco first put its city-wide minimum wage in place in 2004. Since that time, it has risen in step with inflation. If the minimum wage was going to cost jobs the city should have seen the job loss already. Research on this issue failed to find any evidence of job loss — but the Post can still hope.
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