WMC Cites Poll Showing Lower Support For Raising Minimum Wage

The state’s largest business group says voters won’t support raising the minimum wage if they know it could cost jobs, but Democrats say the research used to back that claim is questionable.

A recent poll by Marquette University found that 62 percent of Wisconsin residents favored raising the minimum wage, but a polling firm hired by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce asked the question a different way. WMC’s Scott Manley says it found a majority, 53 percent, supported raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, which is the level called for by President Obama and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke.

“But when they asked the follow-up question and said, ‘A recent study has said Wisconsin stands to lose 27,000 jobs if we increase the minimum wage to that level,’ the support for doing so drops off dramatically,” Manley said. “Support for the minimum wage drops off to 39 percent.”

The assertion that 27,000 jobs will be lost comes from a study out of the Employment Policies Institute. Scot Ross, with the liberal group One Wisconsin Now, says the source of the numbers is significant. The Employment Policies Institute is run by the same PR firm that represents the restaurant and hotel industries, which oppose minimum wage hikes.

“The fact is this is a corporate PR stunt in order to tell people what they know from their common sense, which is raising the minimum wage is going to help grow the economy in Wisconsin,” Ross said.

Groups like WMC contend it’s common sense that a wage hike will result in job losses, since raising the cost of labor will result in less of it. One Wisconsin Now’s Ross says any job loss estimates ignore the benefits of a minimum wage hike, namely the economic boom that comes when people increase their buying power.