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The experts the Cadillac News spoke with said that wasn’t necessarily true.

“Minimum wage increases are not the job killers that they’re sometimes portrayed as,‘ said Peter Ruark, a senior policy analyst at the Michigan League for Public Policy. Ruark cited a National Employment Law Project which found that in 22 instances when federal wages went up, the total private income went up 15 times and that total hours increased went up 10 out of 16 times since 1964.

But Tim Nash, a Northwood University economist with whom Schuette says he sometimes consults, said that he doesn’t support raising the minimum wage.

When governments increase the minimum wage, companies move toward automation, cutting out low-skill and young workers, Nash said. Young people lose the opportunity to gain workplace experience.

“The evidence says that there will be a minimal loss of jobs if you increase the minimum wage,‘ a small amount, Nash said. But while that may be true nationally, it’s not true in low-income areas of big cities.

It’s harder to predict what will happen in rural areas like Cadillac, Nash said. It depends on the ability of the business sector to weather the increase.

Wherever there is a lower level of income and a lower concentration of business, you don’t want to increase the minimum wage and make it more difficult to grow and expand, Nash said. Sep 18, 2018 – Cadillac News

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