A "Fight for $15" protest in New York City. (Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

 

Earlier this month, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti signed a law that will gradually raise the minimum wage in the city from $9 to $15 an hour by 2020. In anticipation of a vote this week on a similar plan, L.A. County’s Board of Supervisors commissioned a study on the possible economic impact of raising the minimum wage.

The results, presented Friday by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation, a private nonprofit research and consulting group, don’t look promising. According to the report’s executive summary, the Los Angeles Times reports, raising the minimum wage is unlikely to have an impact on poverty in the county. Instead, the group found, it would slow employment growth, particularly for “those at the bottom of the skills ladder,” and “many prices will increase.”

So, Why Should You Care? As efforts by Democrats in Congress to raise the federal minimum wage have repeatedly failed, cities and localities have become focal points in the ongoing debate about the minimum wage. Nationally, 3.3 million hourly workers earn at or below the federal minimum wage, according to the Pew Research Center. Keeping the minimum wage low for those workers costs taxpayers around the country $152.8 billion every year. That’s because many low-wage workers are forced to rely on government support programs like food stamps, Medicaid, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families to maintain a basic standard of living.

Taxpayers Beware: 5 Reasons You May Want the Minimum Wage Raised

The LAEDC’s conclusions are at odds with some other studies that have examined the possible effect of raising the minimum wage around the country. One study from the University of California, Berkeley, of nine cities that raised their minimum wage over the last decade and 21 states with higher minimum pay than the federal standard found that raising hourly workers’ minimum wage had almost no effect on employment. The study found that the costs to businesses and companies were absorbed thanks to lower turnover and higher productivity.

The Berkeley study looked at increases up to $13 an hour. Los Angeles’ increase is set to start in July, when businesses with 25 or more employees will have to start paying $10.50 per hour.

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors will vote on the wage proposal on Tuesday. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl told the Los Angeles Times she was “extremely disappointed” in the LAEDC’s report: “The executive summary is not a summary of the report—it’s an opinion piece.”