Assistant Professor Callie Freitag was recently featured on Marketplace discussing the impact of increasing the minimum wage in several states.
“As for the impact on workers, Callie Freitag at the University of Wisconsin, Madison uses Seattle as an example. She said the effects there were modest.
‘The sky doesn’t fall and people don’t become rich,’ Freitag said.
She said researchers have asked workers there how they experienced the wage increases.
‘Low wage folks were saying ‘the minimum wage is going up, but my groceries are going up, my rents going up. Like I don’t necessarily have more left over, right?’ And so, raising the wage is a big political deal, but it’s only one tool we have to help people deal with the rising cost of living,’ she said.
Because, Freitag said, as long as costs outpace what people are earning, they’re still going to struggle.”