Wonder if Kshama knows about this

Eric Hanushek of Stanford, along with three German economists, Guido Schwerdt, Simon Wiederhold, and Ludger Woessmann, have a new working paper out at the NBER (ungated version can be read here). Essentially finding that better education has lifted incomes wherever it's been allowed to be tried;

Which would seem to be a wiser thing to try for increasing the earnings of the low skilled worker, as opposed to passing higher minimum wage laws which will mostly make such jobs scarcer. However they caution;

...we find that returns to skills are systematically lower in countries with higher union density, stricter employment protection, and larger public-sector shares.

Three factors that are now driving the political push for raises to Seattle's minimum wage. We doubt it's a coincidence.