Larry Elder has on an L.A. Times columnist Michael Hiltzik on to defend his statements made in the column*, as well as professor David Neumark to debate some of the finer points. I do include the build up to the interview/debate, which includes and evisceration of anything deemed moderate at the L.A. Times -- pointing out the bias lays firmly on the political-left:
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*...The most common objection to a higher minimum wage always has been that it leads to lower employment. This is one of those "everybody knows" talking points, and it does have a strong intuitive appeal. Stands to reason, doesn't it? Require business owners to spend more on each employee, and of course they're going to spread it among fewer people.
As it happens, the employment effect of the minimum wage is "one of the most studied topics in all of economics," observes economist John Schmitt. So it's curious that, despite decades of searching, economists have failed to document consistently any such phenomenon.
By and large, economic studies find that there's either no effect on overall employment rates whatsoever, or that the effect is too small to measure accurately and most likely swamped by more powerful factors, including the economic cycle.
To be fair, the debate over these findings is vigorous. David Neumark of UC Irvine is an often-cited authority for the idea that "minimum wages pose a trade-off of higher wages for some against job losses for others."...
(Read more: http://tinyurl.com/krx6ydh)
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