When U.S Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D‑VA) and U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D‑WA) introduced the Raise the Wage Act on April 30, they promised that their bill would “raise wages for nearly 38 million American workers.” Their bill would also phase out the subminimum tipped wage and index the minimum wage to median wage growth.
With rhetorical flourish, Sen. Murray said, “Raising the minimum wage to $12 by 2020 is a key component to helping more families make ends meet, expanding economic security, and growing our economy from the middle out, not the top down.”
The fact sheet that accompanied the bill claims that passing the Raise the Wage Act would reduce poverty and benefit low-wage workers, especially minorities. Indeed, it is taken as given that the Act “would give 37 percent of African American workers a raise”—by the mere stroke of a legislative pen. It is also assumed that “putting more money into the pockets of low-wage workers stimulates consumer demand and strengthens the economy for all Americans.”
The reality is that whenever wages are artificially pushed above competitive market levels jobs will be destroyed, unemployment will increase for lower-skilled workers, and those effects will be stronger in the long run than in the short run. The least productive workers will be harmed the most as employers substitute new techniques that require fewer low-skilled workers. There will be less full-time employment for those workers and their benefits will be cut over time. That is the logic of the market price system.