It is revealing, if not disturbing, that the loudest, supposedly informed champions of government-directed minimum-wage increases quietly fade from the public square when the outcome of their outcry is realized. And ever so quietly, the entry-level workers presumably “helped” by these progressives become casualties of their cause.

The latest study on the detriments of government wage diktats projects 1.8 million job losses over the next several years from purely artificial minimum-wage increases, according to The Washington Free Beacon. The American Action Forum, a center-right policy institute, also projects that this year alone, wage increases in 22 states and the District of Columbia will lead to 283,000 job losses.

“A 10 percent increase in the real minimum wage is associated with a 0.3 to 0.5 percentage-point decline in the net job growth rate,” according to the report. New York state, for example, is projected to lose 109,000 jobs in 2017.

And sadly, as this and reams of previous studies point out, the “lowest-wage, least skilled” workers are the ones who lose their jobs.

Sure, some higher-skilled workers can lose their jobs, too, if a private employer is forced to pay a higher base wage. But notoriously, it’s entry-level workers who take the hit.

And as frequent Trib columnist Walter Williams points out, the loss extends beyond a paycheck: “(T)he minimum wage denies them the chance of sharpening their skills and ultimately earning higher wages.”

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(c)2017 The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa.)

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