Clive Crook, Columnist

CBO Is Right: Minimum Wage Hike Can Kill Jobs

Why won't the left campaign for a bigger, better EITC with a tenth of the energy it devotes to campaigning on the minimum wage?

February 20, 2014 at 3:31 PM UTC

By Clive Crook

Clive Crook is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and member of the editorial board covering economics. Previously, he was deputy editor of the Economist and chief Washington commentator for the Financial Times.

Would you like fries with your unemployment benefits? Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

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The Congressional Budget Office's report on the effects of a higher minimum wage has caused gnashing of teeth on the left. It was bad enough when the CBO said the Affordable Care Act would reduce employment. Now this?

The CBO's non-aligned economists say the proposed increase to $10.10 would lift around 900,000 people out of poverty, as intended, but might also eliminate 500,000 jobs. They stress the wide range of uncertainty around both numbers -- but that's not good enough. The idea that the proposal might not be a free lunch, as most liberal commentators insist, called forth accusations of bad faith.