Edward Conard

Top Ten New York Times Bestselling Author

  • “Unintended Consequences provides a provocative interpretation of the causes of the global financial crisis and the policies needed to return to rapid growth. Whether you agree or not, this analysis is well worth reading.” - Nouriel Roubini, New York University; Chairman, Roubini Global Economics
Upside of Inequality Unintended Consequences Oxford

The New York Times reports there are only 500,000 full-time minimum-wage jobs—the same number the Congressional Budget Office expects a raise to $10.10 will destroy

In yesterday’s New York Times’ Economix blog Bruce Bartlett reports on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that of the people earning the minimum wage, “about half were young people and about two-thirds worked only part time. Just half a million people worked full time at a minimum-wage job.”

This is worrisome because the CBO estimates that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour would destroy 500,000 jobs. Even worse, because of substitution effects—where a low skilled worker earning $7.25 per hour is replaced by a higher skilled worker earning $10.10 an hour—the job loss for lower skilled workers would be larger than 500,000.