Anti-$15 Propaganda Is Coming

Minimum wages are going up around the country next month. Local news outlets will claim the increases are killing jobs. Here’s how to inoculate yourself against their lies.

On January 1st, 2020, more than half of the United States and the District of Columbia will raise their minimum wage. Here’s a map of all the states that are seeing an increase next month:

All these increases are a real cause for celebration. We’ve led the way on a $15 minimum wage here in Seattle, and the results have been roundly great. Despite the loud complaints of a few surly business owners and conservative pundits, raising the wage hasn’t killed jobs, raised costs for consumers, or closed restaurants. The University of Washington research team that initially published a tepid report on the minimum wage in 2017 has had to publicly reassess its findings, and the biggest public skeptic on the team, Jacob Vigdor, has freely admitted this year that his early anti-increase writings were “wrong, or off-point.”

But Seattle isn’t the only proving ground anymore. Now that wage increases are commonplace, studies around the country show that raising the wage is great…