Some new research — “Evidence of The Unintended Labor Scheduling Implications of The Minimum Wages” — shows that every $1 an hour increase in government-mandated minimum wages (“political wage-setting”) leads to the following (mostly) adverse outcomes:
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a 27% increase in the total number of workers scheduled to work each week
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a 20.8% decrease in the average number of hours each employee worked per week
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a 13.6% decrease in the total wage compensation of an average minimum wage worker
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a 23% decrease in the percentage of employees working more than 20 hours per week (making them eligible for retirement benefits)
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a 14.9% decrease in the percentage of employees working more than 30 hours per week (making them eligible for health care benefits)
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a 33% increase in fluctuations in the number of hours worked per week
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a 9.5% increase in fluctuations in the number of hours worked per day
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a 9.8% increase in fluctuations of shift start times and
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average net losses of at least $1,590 per year per employee, equivalent to 11.6% of workers’ total compensation (assuming that workers were able to use their reduced hours to work a second job — an assumption which may not hold true for many employees).
