$15 Minimum Wage Hurts Workers Who Need Help Most
A booming economy is lifting people on the margins of the job market. Let it keep performing its magic.
Be careful what you wish for.
Photographer: Victor J. Blue/BloombergThe Congressional Budget Office estimated this week that a House bill to raise the minimum wage could reduce employment by up to 3.7 million jobs. That’s the equivalent of increasing the current unemployment rate by 2.3 percentage points, from 3.7% to 6%. Nonetheless, the measure, which has over 190 cosponsors in the House of Representatives, has received praise from left-of-center think tanks and economists.
Their thinking is that the boost in incomes for families whose breadwinners keep their jobs will more than make up for the losses to those who are out of work. As a dollars-and-cents calculation, there is truth to this. There’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding the effects of a minimum wage increase, but the CBO’s median estimate of the number of jobs lost and the number of workers raised out of poverty are both equal to 1.3 million. In addition, some workers above the poverty line would also receive wage increases, making the proposal a net positive for workers overall.