July 2006
New information as of July 9, 2008: The New York Times published an explosive exposé detailing how the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) covered up nearly $1 million in embezzled funds by its founder’s brother. Read our statement about ACORN’s long history of fraud and corruption.
ACORN says it is a community group, but it is really a multi-million-dollar, multinational…
June 2006
Most economists believe that an increase in the minimum wage causes higher prices and lower employment. This belief rests partly on empirical evidence, but also on the view that labor markets are competitive; if markets are competitive, then increases in the minimum wage should both raise prices and reduce employment. However, a number of studies in the last decade have challenged these beliefs. Some of…
May 2006
Overview
A recent study by the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) claims that increases in the minimum wage at the state level have had no adverse employment effects. Specifically, the FPI report concludes that states that raised their wage floor above the federal level did not experience declines in small business employment, and, in fact, actually experienced an increase in retail employment.
While the FPI study…
April 2006
New York’s so-called “Fair Share for Health Care Act” imposes a pay-or-play health insurance mandate on firms with 100 or more employees. These firms employ more than 70 percent of New York’s workforce, and would be subject to a tax as high as $3 per hour for covered workers. As a consequence, a firm employing
a full-time, full-year worker could be subject to an…
March 2006
In recent years, the movement to enact “living wages” or increases in the minimum wage has been active in states and cities across the country. Advocates of these wage hikes argue that the increases will help low-income families escape poverty. Although emotionally compelling, this argument ignores the unintended consequences the proposed increase would create. Worse, the mandated increase confers its benefits overwhelmingly on employees who…
January 2006
In the United States, two-thirds of the non-elderly population is covered by employer-provided health insurance. The cost of this insurance has increased by more than 59 percent since 2000, with no accompanying increase in the scale or scope of benefits. These increases in health insurance premiums may have significant effects on both health insurance markets and labor markets, including changes in the number of jobs,…