By Andrew Puzder in Los Angeles Daily News

May 6, 2016

California recently became the first state to enact a $15 minimum wage, and the business community is stunned. Not by unions pursuing such an increase. They had a $15 initiative on the ballot this November in any event. Rather, the surprise was that California’s lawmakers were so anxious to avoid a popular vote on a measure that significantly reduces opportunities for working class Californians, the very individuals it was supposed to benefit.

In December, The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco released a paper examining the current research on the impact of minimum wage increases. It stressed that the “most important” policy consideration was whether there would be “fewer jobs for the least skilled workers” because “they are the ones the minimum wage is intended to help.” It found that the “most credible” research showed minimum wage increases resulting in “job losses” for these workers and “with possibly larger adverse effects than earlier research suggested.”

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