ST.PAUL, Minn. (KFGO AM) -- Critics have said a higher state minimum wage could make Minnesota employers cut hiring, but studies show that hasn't happened in places that have done it before.
Director of the Minnesota Budget Project Nan Madden says economists have spent years comparing states that have raised the minimum wage to neighbors that haven't and have often been surprised to see that increasing low-end pay hasn't cost jobs.
Some of the studies found businesses make up the price of higher wages though reducing what they have to pay out due to high turnover.
John Puckett, owner of a Punch Pizza, has begun paying new hires $10 an hour, and says it isn't a choice made for the sake of good publicity or a short-term boost to morale, but because it pays off over years.