California’s new, higher minimum wage could reduce...

California’s new, higher minimum wage could reduce total employment in the state by 0.25% to 0.50%, according to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. “Moreover, the effects will be felt disproportionately more by low-wage workers, including the young and those in such low-wage sectors as apparel manufacturing and the retail trade,” stated economist Carolyn Sherwood-Call in the bank’s Sept. 16 Weekly Letter. The impact on overall employment in California is based on Sherwood-Call’s estimate that the new minimum wage, which went from $3.35 to $4.25 an hour on July 1, could raise the average wage by 1.2%.