[joveian]

Thanks for the non-paywall link! It looks like a useful part of a broader analysis (and maybe more states should require the collection of hours worked data).

If it isn't the same people being employed at higher wages, it is still interesting that a sufficiently large pool of more skilled workers exists to take those jobs.

I wish they did the same all wage levels analysis for all workers that they did for the restaurant industry. Without that analysis it isn't clear if the net zero overall effect applies broadly. If it does, that would seem to indicate that wages in general are being held artificially low due to the availability of low wage labor.

Also, since it is a significant increase in a relatively short time, I wonder if the results of the change have stabilized yet. Hopefully they will repeat the analysis in the future.

It is interesting that one of the tests they thought might show a difference ended up failing their falsification test. I wonder what is going on there.

Since housing rental prices have been going up rapidly in Seattle, I wonder if their result could be explained by a sufficient number of low wage workers fleeing the Seattle area and moving to other parts of Washington (or a slower influx of new low wage workers than previously). Maybe something else to look into for someone who knows where to find that kind of data (if it is gathered).