One reason for this rising tide of support [for raising the minimum wage] is a growing body of academic research suggesting that the costs of a minimum wage increase are less severe than critics allege. . . .
The problem, though, is that none of these studies apply to minimum wage hikes as sweeping as those envisioned by the “Fight for $15” campaign. Boosting, say, Alabama’s minimum wage from its current rate of $7.25 per hour to the $15 per hour that wage hike advocates want is certain to create much bigger dislocations than moving Nebraska’s minimum wage from $8 to $9 an hour, as happened in 2016. . . .
What the evidence is really saying is that modest minimum wage increases do no harm, and probably help some struggling workers. But big wage hikes, on net, start to hurt more than they help.