The Phoenix metropolitan area has lost 7.8 percent of its jobs over the last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. No other metropolitan area has lost a higher percentage of jobs. Coming in at No. 2, is a tie between Tucson and Detroit, which have both lost 7.5 percent of their jobs in the last year.

As state economies go, Michigan’s is as notoriously bad as they come. No other state would dare want to emulate that state. But in one area, Arizona has come close and it could be the reason this state’s two major metropolitan areas are now sharing some of the same statistics with the likes of Detroit.

The minimum wage.

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Michigan had a head start, bumping its minimum wage up to $6.95 per hour in October 2006 and subsequently increasing it twice more so that it now stands at $7.40 per hour.

After approval by voters in November 2006, Arizona instituted its minimum wage of $6.75 per hour two months later and is now up to $7.25 per hour.

HR Wise, a professional employer organization in Mesa, estimated the 35-cents per hour bump in the minimum wage last January cost businesses in the state $1.2 billion more per year. The figure includes matching taxes business have to pay the government.

But the increase couldn’t have come at a worse time, just three months after the collapse of the financial markets manifest itself into what we now know has been a full-blown recession.

At a time when it was next to impossible to raise prices to cover the increased costs, businesses couldn’t afford that $1.2 billion and were left with no alternatives but to layoff or reduce workers’ hours.  

Those who lost their jobs are the least likely to be able to find other employment. These losses disproportionately affect ethnic minorities, people without high school diplomas and unskilled workers. Students also make up a large portion of the minimum wage workforce but their economic livelihood isn’t usually dependent on the job and there are students’ willingness to work part-time hours is only further keeping others out of the workforce.

The idea was that raising the minimum wage would go to help people raise their standards of living. But in reality exactly the opposite has happened as more people lose jobs.    

The consumer price index, upon which Arizona basis its minimum wage increases, has decreased every month this year from what it was a year ago. The August-to-August drop was 3.25 percentage points, the U.S. Labor Department announced last week. But Arizona’s minimum wage law has no provision for being reduced. 

So while consumers are paying less for items, employers can’t adjust salaries. Virtually all employers have to be cognizant of the minimum wage. It’s the guide by which they must gauge pay for those who should receive more than the minimum. It raises costs all the way up the ladder. But it’s those at the bottom who lose the most.

The minimum wage that has not come close to delivering on the promises of its promoters. But Arizona will have help pulling itself up from the rungs of the biggest job losers: The federal minimum wage has come up to match Arizona’s. Misery loves company.