If we increase the minimum wage rate without an attendant increase in worker productivity, we become less competitive. All that stands between retaining or losing more minimum wage jobs to Mexico is the high cost of transporting raw materials and finished products. As we increase labor cost without increasing productivity, we make exporting jobs to Mexico increasingly attractive. Conservatives have long contended that increasing minimum wage results in loss of jobs. Liberals say otherwise.
Studies are inconclusive.
Instinct tells me that there are some marginal jobs that are lost with each increase in minimum wage, but I doubt that it is very significant. We stand near the end of the greatest economic boom our country has experienced in a long time, maybe the greatest ever. A recession is just around the corner. When it comes, a substantial number of lower wage jobs will be lost, at least temporarily. If the minimum wage rate is increased, there will be more people put out of work than if it is not.