What will be the impact on employment with a $15 minimum wage?

More unemployment. The fast food outlets are already putting in ordering kiosks and McD's is automating their equipment more because the numbers say it's cheaper in the long run to do so. You don't have to pay a machine benefits and the L&I tail drops a lot. So basically there will be a lot of workers out of a job demanding benefits from the $15-20/hr people so with taxes they wind up back with the spending income they are getting now. Expect tipping of servers to decline (much of the world doesn't tip) because patrons know they don't have to make up for anything or as much. Any industry reliant on cheap labor like food production, lodging, brick and mortar stores, will take a hit because people will have to pay more to buy groceries, take a vacation, go to the mall, etc. Medical bumps up a lot too.

The job market for high school and college kids will dry up a lot too. The elderly who have no retirement and need to work will find it tougher to get work. More benefits demand.

I see the result of forced higher wages in the Eurozone every summer I go there. Local productivity of people taking care of people has been declining for the past 20 years. Lots of "moving through time" attitude because you get penalized for innovation, working more, earning more....

Sgt Joe LaBranche it looks like more inflation per the GP.

Economic cause and effect. If you raise my operating expense, I can either:
a. Raise prices
b. Reduce personnel
c. Reduce personnel hours
d. Take it in the shorts and absorb the cost out of my profits.

Reference d. above, I should probably note that I want to start a business for the sake of my family, not yours. Sounds mean and cold right? Look up Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand concept, then get back to me.

The Department of Labor states such an adverse effect is a myth as shown on their page titled Minimum Wage Mythbusters. They quote “a letter to President Obama and congressional leaders urging a minimum wage increase, more than 600 economists, including 7 Nobel Prize winners”

1. The 2014 letter is a recommendation to a raise of the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016
2. They do state that it should be adjusted for inflation.
3 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator, adjusted for inflation, that $10.10 in 2014 = $10.21 in 2016.
4. The letter was penned by academics comprised of “600 economists, including 7 Nobel Prize winners wrote”. Where was the input from all the businessmen and women who deal with the reality rather than the academic hypothesis? This is McNamara and the Whiz Kids using a slide rule to manage Vietnam and the military without getting input from the leaders on the ground.


https://www.dol.gov/featured/minimum-wage/mythbuster
http://www.epi.org/minimum-wage-statement/
http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm