Wow. Looks like the laws of economics really do work.

Why is this bad news? Isn’t it better to have quality paying jobs than more crappy paying jobs? Why waste your time working for lousy wages? At least the people who are working aren’t wasting their time.

jtg61, Are you saying that it’s better to be unemployed than to work for $5.15 an hour? I guess you believe in the welfare system. Most of these jobs, as stated in the article, are taken by high school kids trying to pay for their car, insurance or just spending money. You want to shut them out? You obviously never took an Economics class in your life.

As with a lot of counterproductive economic policies, the benefits to some people (higher wages) are typically obvious, while the losses to others (reduced employment opportunities) are not so obvious, and in fact tend to be deliberately ignored by economically-illiterate “social engineers.”

His payroll increased 13% but payroll is only part of his costs. He has rent or a mortgage, supplies, water, utilities, insurance, etc. Raise the cost of a pizza 20 cents and he has paid for the payroll increase. Now that the less fortunate people are making $1.35 more an hour maybe they will be able to afford the occasional pizza.