# Is minimum wage detrimental to the economy?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-minimum-wage-detrimental-to-the-economy/361153>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [June 18, 2006, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-minimum-wage-detrimental-to-the-economy/361153 "2006-06-18T04:49:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Peg\_Leg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/90db22/32.png) [@Peg\_Leg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peg_Leg)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2006, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-minimum-wage-detrimental-to-the-economy/361153/1 "2006-06-18T04:49:22Z")

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With the recent political hoo-hah regarding the possiblity of raising the minimum wage, I’ve begun to question the seemingly “common knowledge” belief that a rise in the minimum wage would have an adverse effect on employment and inflation. Is there any current information that shows proves this one way or another?

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**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2006, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-minimum-wage-detrimental-to-the-economy/361153/2 "2006-06-18T05:44:14Z")

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There have been lots of threads on this before. Most studies show there is no correlation between raising the minimum wage and job loss. Usually the minimum wage gets raised when it falls below the value of $1 in 1960. It’s a little under 80% of that now.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2006, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-minimum-wage-detrimental-to-the-economy/361153/3 "2006-06-18T12:34:20Z")

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MOving this from General Questions to Great Debates.

And I have no doubt, as **saoise** says, that there have been plenty of threads on this very question.

**samclem** GQ moderator

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2006, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-minimum-wage-detrimental-to-the-economy/361153/4 "2006-06-18T12:49:47Z")

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> [@saoirse](#):
>
> There have been lots of threads on this before.

Most recently, AFAIK, last month in this GQ thread: [Minimum wage = less jobs?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=369740)