Progressives always look at the minimum wage as a way of increasing the spending power of low-income workers (although rarely considering the long-run effects as employers adjust), but almost never do they think about an increase as a tax on the hiring of workers. In this AEI post, Professor Mark Perry does exactly that, and concludes that the increase to $10.10 per hour works out to an annual tax per worker of $5,700.
Those same progressives often call for increased taxes on things they want to stop, such as smoking, but for some reason can’t understand that the economic laws that will lead to less smoking will also lead to less hiring.
