Minimum wage...............

Matt Yglesias notices that the "minimum wage" issue will be front and center on the President's agenda in the coming days.

"The State of the Union proposal with by far the most political juice is going to be a call to raise the federal minimum wage to $9 and index it to inflation. That would put it, in inflation-adjusted terms, back up to its 1981 level."

Matt points to this study showing that raising the minimum wage had no observable impact on hiring in the fast food industry.  Hmmm.   I can understand that, as long as the fast food industry can pass the costs along to the consumer, they will still hire.  Judging by this chart below however, there are many industries that can't pass those costs along.  The results do not paint a pretty picture.  Of course, the great recession might have had some impact too.

chart via Mark Perry