Groundbreaking Study Links High Min. Wage to Huge Increases in Crime & the Stats Are Hard To Argue With
A new paper released Monday says that property crime rates would increase significantly among 16-to-24-year-olds if the minimum wage was increased to $15 an hour, leading to $2.4 billion damage, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
This information contradicts findings by Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers in 2016, which stated that raising the minimum wage would reduce crime rates.
“Instead, we find that raising the minimum wage increases property crime arrests among those ages 16-to-24,” the authors of the study wrote.
“Myriad factors determine whether or not people choose to commit crimes, including economic ones. Access to jobs, steady income, and education, can all influence whether or not a person begins a career as a criminal,” Charles Fain Lehman wrote for The Washington Free Beacon.
“This has a practical implication for policymakers looking to reduce crime: In addition to expensive interventions like increasing incarceration or the number of cops, enhancing labor market access and outcomes might be an effective approach.”
But, according to the study, the minimum wage hikes don’t end up enhancing labor market access.
While the Council of Economic Advisers found in 2016 that increasing the minimum wage to $12 would create enough wealth at lower economic strata to eliminate 250,000 to 510,000 crimes, the authors of the new study — Zachary S. Fone, Joseph J. Sabia, Resul Cesur of the National Bureau of Economic Research — say that there’s a flaw in that the Council of Economic Advisers’ approach.
“Although the minimum wage increases take-home wages for some workers, it also leads to reduced hours and job loss among workers,” Lehman reported.
“This is especially true for those whose skill level who puts the market value of their labor below the floor imposed by the minimum wage — a situation which increasingly encourages the replacement of people with robots.”
“We find little evidence that minimum wage increases affect violent or drug crimes, or net crime among older individuals, but do increase delinquency-related crimes related to teenage idleness,” the study read.
“Moreover, in contrast to (an earlier study), we find no evidence that minimum wage increases reduced net crime among working-age individuals, suggesting that different margins of criminal behavior may be affected by minimum wages.”
“Our estimates suggest that this minimum wage hike would generate over 410,000 additional property crimes and $2.4 billion per year in additional crime costs,” the study read.
“We conclude that increasing the minimum wage will at best be ineffective at deterring crime and at worst will have unintended consequences that increase property crime among young adults.”
This is hardly surprising. If you want to look at this in the micro sense as opposed to the macro, consider what happened at Whole Foods.
The Amazon subsidiary introduced a $15 minimum wage for all employees this year, along with raises for those making above the minimum wage. Almost immediately, hours began dropping for employees.
The U.K. Guardian reported that “part-time employee hours at their store were cut from an average of 30 to 21 hours a week, and full-time employees saw average hours reduced from 37.5 hours to 34.5 hours.”
“My hours went from 30 to 20 a week,” an employee who provided the Guardian with schedules said.
“We just have to work faster to meet the same goals in less time.”
Fewer hours means more time on one’s hands. And, at least according to this study, that could mean a dramatic increase in property crime. Meanwhile, a sound economy and a glut of entry level positions — what conservatives are fighting for — would likely have a meliorative effect. Once again, conservatives win this round.
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