NYT: Crossing the State Line Is Worth It for $7.93

[kurtyboy]

<snip>
LIBERTY LAKE, Wash., Jan. 9 — Just eight miles separate this town on the Washington side of the state border from Post Falls on the Idaho side. But the towns are nearly $3 an hour apart in the required minimum wage. Washington pays the highest in the nation, just under $8 an hour, and Idaho has among the lowest, matching 21 states that have not raised the hourly wage beyond the federal minimum of $5.15.

Liberty Lake and Post Falls are divided by more than the state line.
Nearly a decade ago, when voters in Washington approved a measure that would give the state’s lowest-paid workers a raise nearly every year, many business leaders predicted that small towns on this side of the state line would suffer.

But instead of shriveling up, small-business owners in Washington say they have prospered far beyond their expectations. In fact, as a significant increase in the national minimum wage heads toward law, businesses here at the dividing line between two economies — a real-life laboratory for the debate — have found that raising prices to compensate for higher wages does not necessarily lead to losses in jobs and profits.

...

“We’re paying the highest wage we’ve ever had to pay, and our business is still up more than 11 percent over last year,” said Tom Singleton, who manages a Papa Murphy’s takeout pizza store here, with 13 employees.


</snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/11/us/11minimum.html?hp&ex=1168578000&en=bf304392cdc5baf4&ei=5094&partner=homepage

I get so damned tired to the "conventional wisdom" that tells us how bad some new law will be without any real-world study. Here's a living lab (my home state, Washington) with the highest Min Wage in the nation. Economy's doin' jes' fine, thanks.

[Diane R]

1. I'm so proud to live in Washington. n/t

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Philadelphia had the same result...

according to some study I read years ago.

Most economists never get around to "field studies" and just apply theory to numbers they dig out of gummint reports. In the Philadelphia case, several economists actually got off their asses and wandered the streets asking business owners and workers just what happened when the min. wage went up.

Turns out nobody was hurt and most people ended up doing better.

It also makes one wonder just how beneficial these "small businesses" really are when they insist they have to underpay Wal-Mart.

Where's the greed now?