Roughly 97 percent of the Congressional sponsors of the “Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013” and the “Healthy Families Act” hypocritically fail to pay their employee interns any wage, according to a new report by the Employment Policies Institute. Among those select few who do pay, no paid leave is offered.

Legislators understand that mandating pay or benefits for all employees would prevent Congressional offices from hiring more staffers. A similar concept applies in the private sector, where businesses can’t simply absorb the cost of a new pay or benefit mandate without raising prices or cutting costs and staff.

The report also shows that only about 13 percent of these politicians have an educational background in business or economics – two policy areas which could give them a greater understanding of the actual consequences of the policies they’re supporting.

Click here to view the full report.

Memo to Congress: If you’re going to talk the talk, you should walk the walk.

To view the billboard, click here.

Bynes was lucky enough to secure employment during her teenage years, but 24 percent of our country’s job-seeking youth today aren’t so lucky. Unfortunately, politicians across the country – including President Obama – are proposing to put a job even further out of reach for these suffering teens with another hike in the minimum wage. Teens facing another jobless summer should be wigging out at a proposal like this.

Note: Amanda Bynes’ image on this billboard does not imply her endorsement of any particular minimum wage policy or an endorsement of the Employment Policies Institute.

Click here to view a PDF version of the minimum wage hike’s full impact on California.

Simply put, that’s why you bus your own table and fill your own soda at fast-food restaurants. Grocery stores look to self-checkout lanes to replace the need for a cashier, and table-service restaurants use touch-screen ordering devices to cut back on the need for wait staff. Even in the restaurant kitchen, a new robotic burger-maker can do the work of three full-time employees.

This shift is a direct result of mandated increases in labor costs. As businesses strive to meet customer demand for low prices in the face of a minimum wage hike, workers are moved from payroll to the unemployment line. Watch the video below to see an assortment of changes that businesses make to adjust to misguided policies like wage hikes.

In a recent interview with an NPR affiliate in Delaware, however, the Labor Secretary broke from his talking points: “I’m not going to say any particular business might not have a problem hiring if we raise the minimum wage…”

It’s a big concession coming from a partisan player like Harris, but it should come as no surprise to anyone with more than a passing familiarity with labor economics. Fully 85 percent of the most credible studies on this subject acknowledge that a government-mandated wage hike has costs in the form of fewer entry-level opportunities.

It’s nice to see the country’s top labor official acknowledge this fact, however briefly.

Unfortunately, our elected officials are currently considering further increases in the federal minimum wage, which would only worsen the teen unemployment crisis.

Currently, the national teen unemployment rate is 24.1 percent. Want to know how your state compares? Check out the figures below, and see a list of all 50 states here.

But Nader wasn’t just wrong on the principles—he made some serious factual errors as well.

• For instance, Nader claimed that “two-thirds of low-wage workers are employed not by small businesses but by large, multinational and highly profitable corporations…” Try again: The report he’s citing actually says that two-thirds of lower-wage workers are at businesses with more than 100 employees—not “large, multinational, and highly profitable corporations.” A business with 100 employees is often nothing more than a local restaurant franchisee or a regional grocery chain with a handful of locations.

• Nader also claims that “Andy Shallal, owner of the successful Busboys and Poets restaurant chain, starts his workers at $10.25 per hour.” Again, another false statement. In fact, Shallal admitted in the Baltimore Business Journal that his tipped employees start at $3.63 per hour—the state tipped wage in Maryland. Of course, like at any restaurant with tipped employees, tipped income is higher with tips—in fact, an average wage that exceeds $13 per hour. But that means Shallal is no different than the large restaurant businesses that activists hold out for scorn.

Of course, Nader’s greatest fault is his ideological support for a higher minimum wage. The economic consensus is clear on the wisdom of this policy: 85 percent of the most credible economic research from the last two decades points to job loss following a wage hike, as opposed to economic stimulus or job creation.

Nader may be a passionate consumer advocate, but he should leave the economics to those who understand supply and demand.

In support of a higher minimum wage, advocates typically point to a handful of business owners who voice ideological support for the policy. Take Costco, for instance, whose CEO has voiced strong support for raising the federal minimum wage.

Why do these few businesses support raising the minimum wage while many others oppose it? Watch our new video to learn more.

Census Bureau data show that this industry is the largest employer of entry-level employees (defined as 16-24 year-olds without a high school diploma). One-third of the country’s entry-level employees receive their paycheck from a food or hospitality employer—no other industry comes close. Regarding restaurants specifically—which were the subject of so much ire in the weeks’ protests—five of the ten most popular entry-level occupations are food-service jobs.

Think of it this way: What if someone told you that the bulk of the country’s lower-paying jobs are concentrated in the same industry that the bulk of Americans receive early work experience? You’d probably say, “Duh!” These employees start at the bottom of the wage scale because they’re starting at the bottom of the career ladder. But they’re not stuck there: Two-thirds receive a raise in 1-12 months on the job.

Of course, you need job experience to receive a raise, and you can’t get experience without a job. Yet that’s exactly what will happen if the activists who misuse this information get their way on a $15 minimum wage.

Stevenson’s missteps are numerous, and are responded to in detail below:

• “[W]orkers who receive more than $30 per month in tips are required to be paid only $2.13 per hour.”

This plainly false statement shouldn’t have made it past the Post’s editors, as even the source they hyperlink to supports the fact instead of refutes it. Per the Labor Department, tipped employees’ hourly earnings must equal “at least the federal minimum wage” of $7.25. With tip income included, Census Bureau data shows that these employees average $13 an hour—and that’s just what they voluntarily report.

• “Although the minimum wage has been raised 22 times since it was established, those increases are needed to restore its inflation-eroded value back to its earlier real level.”

The federal minimum wage was established in 1938, and set at 25 cents an hour. A quick calculation using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator shows that this value, adjusted for inflation, would be $4.12 today. That means today’s minimum wage of $7.25 is actually 75 percent greater than its historical inflation-adjusted value. It also means Stevenson is wrong.

• “When economists have analyzed the data, many have found few, if any, negative effects of a minimum wage on employment.”

This is a classic use of the weasel word “many.” What Stevenson knows, but doesn’t bother to inform readers, is that “most”—in fact, the vast majority—of the most credible research on the minimum wage from the last two decades points to a loss of jobs following a minimum wage increase. And of the “many” studies she cites, “most” have been debunked as unreliable.

• “Those working full-time for minimum wage earn about $15,000 per year.”

As a labor economist, Stevenson surely is aware of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). So it’s surprising that she doesn’t offer it as a qualifier here. A single-parent minimum wage earner—who, incidentally, represents less than 10% of those covered by President Obama’s proposal—receives $5,200 in additional income each year due to the EITC. That puts their full-time minimum wage above the $9 an hour the President is calling for.

• “The vast majority of the public supports raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 per hour”

Here’s what Stevenson left out: Support for a higher minimum wage plummets when the public is informed of the consequences of the policy. For instance, when informed that a higher minimum wage could make it more difficult for less-skilled individuals to find work, support falls from the mid-70 percent range down to the low 40s. So much for the “vast majority.”

• “[R]aising the minimum wage [will] reduce poverty”

 Even famous minimum wage proponents like David Card and Alan Krueger have acknowledged that raising the minimum wage is an imperfect way to reduce poverty. (President Obama’s former top economist also acknowledged this in a recent New York Times op-ed). One reason: So few people in poverty have a job. It’s not just a lesson for economists: The 28 states that raised their minimum wage between 2003 and 2007 experienced no reduction in poverty, either.

• “[A]t most, 20 percent [of minimum wage earners] are teenagers”

Here, Stevenson is directly contradicted by data from the government Department she used to be the chief economist for. Labor Department data show that 24.1 percent of minimum wage earners are between the ages of 16 and 19, and 50.6 percent are between the ages of 16 and 24.  That’s why the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that minimum wage earners “tend to be young.”

• “The vast majority have household earnings below the median, which was $50,054 in 2011.”

If this statement seems confusing for readers of Stevenson’s op-ed, it should be: After telling readers that minimum wage earners bring in just $15,00 per year, she now uses a much higher number of $50,054 to measure their income. That’s because the majority of minimum wage earners either live with family or relatives, or have a spouse that also works. And their average family income is about $50,000 per year, according to Census Bureau data.

These are the facts about the minimum wage. They’re the facts that Stevenson conveniently ignores in favor of ideology. As for the employees who stand to lose their jobs if Stevenson’s logic prevails in Congress, ideology won’t pay the bills–and neither will misinformation.