Higher minimum wage correlates slightly with higher unemployment

PBN Staff

02/23/2018

IT’S A LOCAL STORY: Higher minimum wages do not seem to have hurt New England excessively – three states have among the lowest 10 jobless rates in the nation. And Massachusetts, with the third-highest minimum wage in the nation, comes in at No. 17 for lowest jobless rate in the nation. No one ever said New England followed all the national trends.

One of the primary arguments against raising the minimum wage is that employment will drop, especially among young, entry-level workers. A cursory look at the numbers does not support that thesis, since the state with the lowest unemployment rate at the end of 2017 was Hawaii, at 2 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of

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