this outcome mean that raising the minimum wage by 10% is bad public policy? Not necessarily.

If 98% of those receiving the minimum wage have a pay increase of 10%, but 2% of those receiving the minimum

wage lose their jobs, are the gains for society as a whole greater than the losses? The answer is not clear, because

job losses, even for a small group, may cause more pain than modest income gains for others. For one thing, we

need to consider which minimum wage workers are losing their jobs. If the 2% of minimum wage workers who lose

their jobs are struggling to support families, that is one thing. If those who lose their job are high school students

picking up spending money over summer vacation, that is something else.

Another complexity is that many minimum wage workers do not work full-time for an entire year. Imagine a

minimum wage worker who holds different part-time jobs for a few months at a time, with bouts of unemployment
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