A handy illustration of the problem with just hiking the minimum wage.

This Tweet says it all:

…basically, what happened there is that Seattle raised its minimum wage to $15/hour: and at least one business involved promptly passed along the costs to the consumer as a ‘living wage surcharge.’ Couple that with what appears to be a sales tax of 11% and suddenly a bill for $84 is well along its way for becoming one for $105. And here’s the important thing: there are people who will pay $84 for this particular service (ie, keeping their car at the airport for when they get back), but not $105. They’ll instead have somebody drop them off and pick them up, or find a cab service that won’t charge them $105 for two trips, or maybe even go to a different airport where things are cheaper. Put another way: less economic activity. Less money in circulation. Less people getting money for services.

Because that’s what happens when you tax things. You get less of whatever it is that you’re taxing. This is known.

Moe Lane

PS: The people telling you different… well, I suppose some of them have worked at real jobs. …Some.

5 thoughts on “A handy illustration of the problem with just hiking the minimum wage.”

  1. Point of Order: the City of SeaTac (it is a city, between Seattle and Tacoma) raised their minimum wage a few months ago.

    Doesn’t change much, but that surcharge there isn’t “prompt”.

    And the sales tax is 11% – no income tax in WA, yet. Bill Gates’ dad has been trying to change that.

  2. It’s simplicity is what makes it effective. The left filibusters with bogus studies to try to avoid Economic truths. This cuts through all that.

  3. Wait till they outlaw printing it on the receipt. They have done that with other taxes and surcharges in the past then said you couldn’t tell the public how much it cost them

    1. I’d take it to the media then and continue to print it on my receipts.
      –
      There is something known as the 1st Amendment.

  4. MasterPark runs a number of relatively inexpensive (parking is BRUTAL at SeaTac) valet parking lots next to the airport. I used to park there pretty much all the time, when I lived in Seattle (which I blessedly no longer do).
    .
    They also opened a separately branded self-park credit-card-only lot over the past couple of years. You still have to pay shuttle drivers, but other than some hired security, there are no other people on the lot. Back before the minimum wage thing, it cost about 70% of what the valet lots did.
    .
    Guess where expansion dollars are going to go? Guess where the drivers are going to go?

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