Full Page Ad in New York Post Calls Gov. Cuomo a Dunce on Consequences of $15 Minimum Wage

Ad Points to Broad Opposition from Economists, Real Examples of Harm
  • Publication Date: March 2016

Washington D.C. — The Employment Policies Institute (EPI) is placing a full-page ad in tomorrow’s New York Post calling out Gov. Andrew Cuomo for his uninformed views on New York’s $15 minimum wage. Gov. Cuomo has been traveling the state in an RV paid for by his union allies, trying to drum up support for his proposal to raise the state minimum wage by 67 percent to $15 an hour.

The ad portrays Gov. Cuomo wearing a dunce cap and features his recent comment that there is “no credible evidence” a $15 minimum wage hurts businesses or costs jobs. This claim is stamped, “FALSE.”

The text at the bottom reads: “News reports show New York businesses are already closing or cutting staff in response to state wage hikes. That’s why 72% of labor economists oppose a broad $15 wage mandate. Even Obama and Clinton administration economists think it’s a bad idea.”

View the ad here.

New York State businesses like Longway’s Diner, Betty’s, P.J. Clarke’s, and Medici House have already been reduced hours and jobs or closed entirely in response to existing New York wage hikes. (Read more specific stories at Facesof15.com.)

A recent paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco summarized the research on minimum wages increases, and confirmed that past hikes have measurably reduced job opportunities.  A recent University of New Hampshire survey finds 72 percent of U.S.-based labor economists oppose a broad $15 mandate. Four out of five economists responded that such a wage hike would reduce job opportunities for young jobseekers.

Even Obama and Clinton administration economists like Katharine Abraham and Harry Holzer think a $15 minimum wage is a bad idea.

 “Gov. Andrew Cuomo should step off his minimum wage RV and into the real-world where some New York State businesses are already reeling from existing state minimum wage increases,” said Michael Saltsman, research director at the Employment Policies Institute. “Given this anecdotal evidence and overwhelming economic proof that wage hikes have consequences, only a dunce would say there’s ‘no credible evidence’ of harm caused by a higher minimum wage.”