I don't deny that there's going to be something in the way of small price increases. I just see it as being a relatively small negative effect that is overridden by the positive effect of a higher living standard. |
One of the issues that has come up in some of my studies is that the workers are going to get a raise on the one hand, but then they're going to go to the stores, and everything is going to cost more - so in the end, this doesn't help the workers that it's supposed to help. I've tried to estimate that - and it is true that you probably will have some upward price pressure, but I've estimated that as being pretty small. |
There's a simple reason why that's so. The cost increase for businesses to cover the living wage is generally a very small share of their overall operating budget - in the range of 1 to 2 percent. So those kind of costs can be passed through to consumers in the form of slightly higher prices or could be passed through in terms of slight reduction in profitability or improvements in productivity - so that the adjustments that businesses have to make in order to absorb the wage increase for their lowest-paid workers is not really that large. |