Barry Ritholtz, Columnist

Doomsayers Keep Getting It Wrong on Higher Minimum Wages

In Seattle, unemployment has fallen and business has boomed since the city raised its pay floor.

October 21, 2016 at 1:38 PM EDT

Barry Ritholtz is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is chairman and chief investment officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management, and was previously chief market strategist at Maxim Group. He is the author of “Bailout Nation.”

Boomtown.
Photographer: Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald/getty images

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In 2014, Seattle passed an ordinance to eventually raise the minimum wage in the city to $15 an hour, giving the Pacific Northwest city the highest pay floor in the U.S.

The ink wasn’t even dry on the wage legislation when the dire warnings of economic collapse began. Unemployment would skyrocket, economic growth in the state would be hurt, restaurants and small businesses would close en masse. The deserved punishment would be swift and harsh.

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