Minimum wage hikes may malign fast-food jobs and discount shoppers

On a rainy afternoon last week outside a suburban Chicago office complex, hundreds of fast food workers gathered with signs declaring “Resist Wage Theft” and ones depicting President Trump in Ronald McDonald make-up.

The protestors – part of the “Fight for 15” movement – were demanding wage increases and union rights for workers as McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) shareholders met inside the fast food giant’s headquarters for their annual meeting. McDonald’s was the target of the protest in Illinois, but demonstrations were held in cities across the country that day in support of raising the minimum wage for workers in low-paying job sectors ranging from restaurants to retail.

"Instead of paying their CEO $15 million, they should give him $10 million and pay their workers what’s right," said Terrance Wise, a 42-year-old McDonald’s employee from Kansas City.

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Despite Tankel’s view, economists are torn on whether or not higher wages lead to higher rates of unemployment. First, it is still early days as cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle begin to implement higher minimum wages. As economists prepare to study these new changes, the majority of existing research points to more downsides than upsides.  

A Harvard Business School

Others feel there is a tipping point when a higher minimum wage can backfire. Tim Worstall, a fellow at the Adam Smith Institute in London, told Fox News an argument can be made for setting the minimum wage at $12. “A small jump in the minimum wage will have almost no effect at all,” he said. “It’s all different when it comes to a big jump. Once the minimum wage gets over 45 percent to 50 percent of the median wage you start to see a change.”

In a recent investigation, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis

“For an area experiencing fast growth, having a high minimum wage will be a bad deal for the new entrants as they might have a tougher time finding a job,” Radhakrishnan Gopalan, a professor of finance at Olin Business School, said in a statement. “On the other hand, if you’re in an area whose population is not growing very fast, then raising the minimum wage will definitely benefit your existing low-wage employees, and the number of new employees who are hurt will be a minimum.”

Another concern voiced by analysts is that companies will have to raise the prices of their goods to meet the demand of paying a higher minimum wage. Experts contend that people working in low wage jobs are the most likely ones to feel the effects of a price increase as they are overwhelmingly the ones shopping at places that hire them. “People with minimum wage jobs are shopping at Walmart, not Neiman Marcus,” Worstall said. “Price increases would just hurt the people getting minimum wage.”

Any clear evidence of whether or not employment growth slows down with enactment of the minimum wage policies will likely have to wait of a few years as cities act as policy laboratories in the closest thing economists will get to a real-life controlled study.

Reuters contributed to this report.