… is from page 252 of David Neumark’s and William L. Wascher’s 2008 book, Minimum Wages (footnote and citation deleted; link added):
At any particular time, it is relatively easy to identify the beneficiaries of a minimum wage increase, and most affected workers will, in fact, see their earnings rise as a result of a higher minimum wage (i.e., there are likely more winners than losers). In contrast, much of the negative effect that minimum wages have on low-skilled employment may reflect a reduction in hiring rather than an increase in separations. As a result, it is often difficult to explicitly identify those individuals who would have been employed in the absence of a minimum wage increase. In that regard, [Charles] Brown notes that “an absence of evidence of widespread discharges following minimum wage increases has led some supporters of the minimum to doubt that it was causing any significant loss of employment,” a view that he characterizes as a “logical error.”
