The Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics uses data collected from the United States Bureau of the Census to determine the labor force. The labor force is the sum of employed and unemployed workers in the economy [1]. Individuals considered unemployed are currently not at work but are available for work and have actively looked for work during the previous month. The Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics determines the unemployment rate by dividing the number of unemployed by the labor force and multiplying by one hundred [1]. In context to Seattle, the fifteen-dollar minimum wage legislation provides for a gradual increase in the minimum wage to fifteen-dollars an hour over several years. As this fifteen-dollar minimum wage legislation increases the minimum wage over several years, some analysts support the claim that the early on increase in minimum wage has also increased the unemployment rate in Seattle. The issue with this claim is that since it is early on, there is no actual data in the evidence to support the claim that the initial increase in …show more content…
The draft presents the earliest results from the analysis, regarding to the price data collected in person by study personnel. The results from the analysis pertain only to the initial minimum wage increase from $9.47 to $11 on April 1, 2015 and may not accurately describe the long run effects the minimum wage increase has on firms [4]. The evidence indicates that any price increase from the initial minimum wage increase had small positive effects on prices, though it is undetectable in the largest samples collected by the study team [4]. The draft also describes a multidisciplinary, mixed-method approach to evaluate the potential effects the increased minimum wage legislation has on firms, households, and markets [4]. The study team is under contract to present an initial impact for the city of Seattle in mid-2016 and plans to analyze the effects in connection to the minimum wage increases on January 1, 2016 and January 1, 2017. It is evident the claim Patton and other analysts are trying to convey is represented by inaccurate data from the analysis done by the University of Washington study team. The effects from the initial minimum wage increase are nearly undetectable as it is early on in the legislation, which implies that the initial minimum wage increase would have nearly no effect on the unemployment