Brian Rossell: Exploring the Impact of Minimum Wage Increases
As a bakery manager for Giant Foods, Brian Rossell has hired employees at or near the minimum wage. Seeing first-hand the struggles faced by his workers, he instinctively is strongly in favor of an increase in the minimum wage.
However, as a senior economics major at Elizabethtown College, Brian learned that price floors and trade restrictions generally lower worker welfare and harm, rather than help, the economy.
Armed with insights from his education and his sociological background, Brian decided to research the impact of Pennsylvania’s recent minimum wage increase.
Surprisingly, Brian’s research demonstrates that reality is not always easily linked to theory and that outcomes are sometimes unpredictable. Instead of negative effects, Pennsylvania saw its employment levels rise with the climb in the minimum wage.
Brian hopes that research like his will increase knowledge about the effects of minimum wage increases and that, with improved knowledge, these increases will be less feared. He also hopes that a legislated minimum wage someday will become unnecessary. “This project has made me feel that it is possible to do real, effective research and that I have the possibility to discover and examine enlightening truths,” Brian says.
Project Title: "Minimum Wage Laws and Their Effect on Workers’ Welfare"
Date: Scholarship and Creative Arts Day 2008 – Tuesday, April 22
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Sanjay Paul
Brian is one of several student scholars from Elizabethtown’s Department of Business who will present during Scholarship and Creative Arts Day 2008. A full schedule of this and other events featuring the creativity and scholarship of Elizabethtown students will be available in mid-April on the Scholarship and Creative Arts Day webpage.
