User:Adam conlon/sandbox

Relative minimum wage is the ratio of the national median wage. This varies from country to country. A higher relative minimum wage means that there is a large gap between the minimum wage of that given area and the national median wage. This occurs in low income areas. The national U.S. national relative wage is about .36, which is the lowest out of any industrialized country. Recent studies have shown that there is evidence to suggest that minimum wage does not increase unemployment, which is contrary to the believe up until the 2000s. Recent studies show that the areas which have a higher national median wage are considered “high impact areas.” High impact meaning that these areas are at a higher risk for minimum wage policy to directly impact that community. In these high impact areas studies show that an increase in minimum wage increases employment, wages, and decreases poverty. These new studies help show how minimum wage can help reduce the gap in low income areas as well as increase the standard of living.[29]

Problems with Studies on Minimum Wage ''' Why is it that thousands of prestigious Universities throughout the world have not been able to agree on the minimum wage issue? Some argue that these studies can be controlled to produce the outcome that one is looking for. Just last year, separate studies in Seattle at the University of Washington and the University of California Berkely produced studies that were the polar opposide of eachother, how can this be? The University of Washington at Seattle in its study revealed that an increase in minimum wage created a loss in jobs for firms in Seattle. But in this study data from employers with multiple locations was left out. That is leaving out 40% of Seattle's low wage earners from the study. That is a huge amount of industry and data that is left out of a study, so why do it? This leads some to believe that there is a discrepancy between these studies. How serious should we take these accusations about the conflicts of these studies? Some studies bring information from 1938, saying that a .25 increase in minimum wage destroyed jobs. Is data from over 80 years ago valid in these studies? Data has to be organized and deemed relevant before definite statements can be made from these studies.