Any time there are talks about increasing the minimum wage, the same talking point comes back, "increasing the minimum wage increases the unemployment rate." Being from the south, all you have to do is look around an know that isn't true.

The most recent unemployment statistics for these states came out in Nov. 2019, so I will base this on the minimum wage in 2019, not counting the increase that recently happened January 1st. 

The states which I will be using as the "South" are as followed: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Now, if we look at the minimum wage rates across these states, there are 11 of the 14 states in the South that have a minimum wage of $7.25, the Federal Minimum Wage. Arkansas($9.25), Florida($8.46), West Virginia($8.75) are the states which have higher minimum wages than the Federal Minimum Wage. *Note these are based on 2019 numbers, and do not represent any increases in 2020*

The average unemployment rate among the states which have higher minimum wage than the federal minimum wage is 3.9% the average of states with minimum wages the same as the federal minimum wage is 3.6%. Now this looks like the minimum wage does lead to higher unemployment, right? Wrong. Because the South isn't a unified block, and consist of 14 different states, and was at one point it's own country, but let's not talk about that right now. So we need to look at it in groups of states. 

I have looked at the states with higher minimum wages, and compared them to the surrounding states. Arkansas for example, is surrounded by Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee (Missouri too but they ain't Southern), so Arkansas had a minimum wage of $9.25 and as of Nov. 2019 has a 3.6% unemployment rate. All the surrounding states have the federal minimum wage, and the average unemployment rate for these states is 4.1%. So Arkansas being at 3.6% is evidence that a higher minimum wage doesn't lead to higher unemployment, but having a lower minimum wage does. 

Let's look at Florida, which has a 3.1% unemployment rate. It is bordered by Georgia and Alabama, which their average unemployment rate is 3%. Which 0.1% isn't much of a statistical difference. 

And finally West Virginia, which has a 4.9% unemployment rate. It is bordered by Kentucky and Virginia, which their average unemployment rate is 3.5%. So in this instance, West Virginia has a higher minimum wage, and a higher unemployment rate; however, looking at the overall context, West Virginia has had high unemployment rates since the Great Recession in 2008, and first got below 5% unemployment in 2019, a decade after the Great Recession, even with a higher minimum wage, which West Virginia increased their minimum wage to $8.00 in 2015, and $8.75 in 2016. In 2015, West Virginia began the year with a 6.6% unemployment rate and ended the year with a 6.4% unemployment rate, and 2016 ended with a 5.5% unemployment rate. So West Virginia increased the minimum wage $1.50, over a two year period, and the unemployment rate dropped 1.1%. So the increasing the minimum wage doesn't negatively impact the unemployment rate looking internally at West Virginia, and not just to its neighbors. 

Increasing the minimum wage doesn't lead to more unemployment, it leads to Americans having more money in their pockets, which goes right back into the economy, which leads to creating more jobs.