2012-11-07

Minimum wage experiment - San Jose, California

I just stumbled across this in the US election coverage: it seems that the city of San Jose, California is going to raise the minimum wage from $8/hr to $10/hr.

Measure D supporters argued that raising the wage floor in San Jose from the current state hourly minimum of $8 to $10 with annual inflation adjustments is a moral necessity in pricey Silicon Valley. San Jose State sociology students hatched the idea that quickly gained labor union support.
Sociology students? Moral necessity? You couldn't make it up.

What could possibly go wrong?

Here is the San Jose unemployment rate: coming down to about 9% from a 13% peak in 2010. I would wage a quid or two that in 6-12 months you're going to be looking it climbing above 10% once more.

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