**Written by Doug Powers

Today in stories that will come as a total shock to progressive economists gives us this study just released by Captain Obvious:

When Seattle officials voted three years ago to incrementally boost the city’s minimum wage up to $15 an hour, they’d hoped to improve the lives of low-income workers. Yet according to a major new study that could force economists to reassess past research on the issue, the hike has had the opposite effect.

The city is gradually increasing the hourly minimum to $15 over several years. Already, though, some employers have not been able to afford the increased minimums. They’ve cut their payrolls, putting off new hiring, reducing hours or letting their workers go, the study found.

The costs to low-wage workers in Seattle outweighed the benefits by a ratio of three to one, according to the study, conducted by a group of economists at the University of Washington who were commissioned by the city. T
[…]
On the whole, the study estimates, the average low-wage worker in the city lost $125 a month because of the hike in the minimum.

The fact that the city needed to shell out taxpayer money to commission a study about that speaks volumes. You just know the city’s response to the study will to raise the minimum wage even more to try and make up the difference.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe