Report Documents the Negative Impact of Minimum Wage Hike
       A report released by the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University today asserts that a proposed minimum wage hike will raise prices and cost Massachusetts 27,000 jobs.
       The report counters 50 economists who have publicly endorsed the wage hike, and claims the wage hike may give businesses in border states a competitive advantage. Lawmakers, union leaders and representatives of low-wage workers are pushing to pass a law that would give Massachusetts the highest minimum wage in the nation by 2007. Minimum wage hike supporters hope to raise the wage floor from $6.75 to $7.50 in January 2006, and to $8.25 an hour in January 2007. Increases based on inflation would follow each year, under the legislation.
       The report can be viewed at www.beaconhill.org.