Logical fallacy: Linking a $15 minimum wage in 2022 to unemployment in 2015
TL; DR Summary
- Occupy Democrats issued propaganda posters in 2015 proclaiming that in spite of a $15 minimum wage, Seattle’s unemployment has gone down and restaurants are booming,
- But the $15 wage does not take effect until 3 to 7 years into the future.
- This linkage is a logical fallacy.
Poster 2 Source: Occupy Democrats. Shared over 28,000 times.
There is no connection between a $15 minimum wage and Seattle restaurants or unemployment in 2015 because there is not yet a $15 minimum wage.
The $15 minimum wage in Seattle will kick in gradually over a period of 3 to 7 years, depending on the type of employer.
From the Seattle Mayor’s Office:
“provides for an increase in the minimum wage in the City of Seattle to $15 an hour, phased in over time, beginning April 2015: Small employers (businesses with fewer than 500 employees) will reach a $15 an hour minimum wage in seven years. Also established is a temporary guaranteed minimum compensation responsibility of $15 an hour to be met within the first five years, which can be achieved by combining employer-paid health care contributions, consumer-paid tips, and employer-paid wages. Large employers (businesses with 500 or more employees, either in Seattle or nationally) will reach $15 per hour in three years. The wages of employees who receive health care benefits will reach $15 per hour in four years.”
See more at: http://murray.seattle.gov/minimumwage/#sthash.q4B9B1lP.dpuf
Seattle did raise its minimum wage to $15/hour – eventually, but not yet. It is true that Fox News commentators objected to this. And it’s true that as of now, the unemployment rate in Seattle has returned to pre-Great Recession levels. None of these 3 items are related to one another, however.
This poster makes a false assertion between a $15/hour minimum wage and unemployment rates. Linking these items together is a logical fallacy. We could just as easily say that business was booming in 1999 because a minimum wage hike would be enacted in 2015!
Both posters were shared into my FB news feed.
Of interest, the value of $15/hour was an arbitrary figure. Both in New York and in Seattle, minimum wage activists wanted at least $10/hour and as much as $20/hour – but they knew that $20/hour would never be approved. So they split the difference to seek $15/hour – a completely arbitrary figure.
Parody Alert!
Occupy Democrats is the most prolific producer of propaganda posters on social media, issuing numerous posters every day. Many posters, like the examples shown here, are propaganda parodies if you consider what they say 🙂 Fortunately for them, social media enthusiasts quickly click “Like” and “Share”, spreading their parodies far and wide!
The sponsor of the $15/hour minimum wage pays their own workers $13/hour because they could not afford to pay more. One cannot make this stuff up 🙂