Myth- Min. Wage hikes hurt small business - article from NY Times

[groovedaddy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/11/us/11minimum.html

January 11, 2007 – NY Times
For $7.93 an Hour, It’s Worth a Trip Across a State Line
By TIMOTHY EGAN
LIBERTY LAKE, Wash., Jan. 9 — Just eight miles separate this town on the Washington side of the state border from Post Falls on the Idaho side. But the towns are nearly $3 an hour apart in the required minimum wage. Washington pays the highest in the nation, just under $8 an hour, and Idaho has among the lowest, matching 21 states that have not raised the hourly wage beyond the federal minimum of $5.15.
Nearly a decade ago, when voters in Washington approved a measure that would give the state’s lowest-paid workers a raise nearly every year, many business leaders predicted that small towns on this side of the state line would suffer.
But instead of shriveling up, small-business owners in Washington say they have prospered far beyond their expectations. In fact, as a significant increase in the national minimum wage heads toward law, businesses here at the dividing line between two economies — a real-life laboratory for the debate — have found that raising prices to compensate for higher wages does not necessarily lead to losses in jobs and profits.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/11/us/11minimum.html

[liberal N proud]

1. What happens when you put an extra 15 bucks a week in a minimum wage earners check?

They spend it, putting it directly back into the economy.

What happens when you give $5000 to they guy making 500K/year? He puts it in his off-shore bank account.

Minimum wage hikes directly feed the economy and make it grow.

[FormerDittoHead]

2. Q: Just to put the nail in this coffin, is there *any* study which proves the Repub's position? n/t

[rfranklin]

3. I'm sure the American Enterprise Institute has a boatload...

of "studies" that prove tax breaks for billionaires are just great!