Specifically, the study found that higher minimum wages caused a 9.4% reduction to total hours worked by low-skilled workers, or roughly 14 million hours per year.  Given that a full-time employee works 2,080 hours per year, that's equivalent to just over 6,700 full-time equivalents who have lost their jobs, just in the city of Seattle.

While the higher minimum wage law remains intact in liberal Washington State - despite the research suggesting that it's harming Seattle's most vulnerable workers - the Missouri legislature recently acted to prevent a similar catastrophe from playing out in St. Louis by passing what's known as a preemption law to invalidate a city-approved minimum wage hike that was slated to take effect in late August. The hike would've raised the city's minimum wage to $10 an hour, from the state-approved $7.70.