How a Rising Minimum Wage Affects Jobs in Seattle<br />If the comparison city, known as a control, did not experience a loss in hours worked similar to Seattle’s, this would suggest<br />that the minimum-wage increase was to blame for the reduction of hours in Seattle.<br />“The key challenge this study faces is how to separate the normal shift that’s happening in a booming labor market — where low-wage jobs disappear<br />and are replaced by higher-wage jobs — from an actual increase in the minimum wage,” said Ben Zipperer, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute.<br />The University of Washington researchers found that the minimum-wage increase resulted in higher wages,<br />but also a significant reduction in the working hours of low-wage earners.
