Conservatives just love to say that if you raise the minimum wage, one of two things will happen, either of which will be economically detrimental:

Employers will hire fewer workers because they have to pay each one more The price of labor will increase and that cost will be passed along to consumers, which will stunt economic growth

So what’s currently happening in Seattle must have a lot of right-wing number crunchers mighty confused.

Seattle raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour, with a phase-in period that increased the beginning wage to $11 in 2015. And early results were not promising, with the conservative American Enterprise Institute highlighting preliminary figures from the Labor Department, which suggested that the loss of 1,300 restaurant jobs might be tied to the wage hike.

Oh how time can change things! Economic analysis by Forbes magazine shows that, in fact, the number of jobs created in Seattle has actually increased since January of 2015, with monthly increases during that time period being recorded nearly every month and increasing as 2015 drew to a close. So much for the gloom and doom predictions, huh?

Admittedly, the loss of 1,000 jobs between April and May 2015, just after the implementation of the new $11 an hour minimum wage, was substantial. And there was also a 900 job drop between August and September, proving that a trend may only be temporary. However, the addition of 1,100 jobs between May and June, at the same $11 an hour minimum wage, was larger than the losses. And that was equaled by the 1,100 position jump between September and October.

It may be tempting to say that the basic laws of economics–good old supply and demand–are in effect for all sectors of the American economy, but as these numbers show only too clearly, not all of the assumptions fed to us by the trickle-down theorists are true. Their old models of cause and effect have been disproven on more than one occasion.

Seattle just kicked right-wing economics square in the teeth.

For a closer look at what it’s like for workers to survive on the current minimum wage, watch this report from InClose:

Featured Image Via Wikimedia