Nobel Winning Economists: Minimum Wage Boost Will Help Economy

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/10/11/nobel-winning-economists-minimum-wage-boost-will-help-economy/

Nobel Winning Economists: Minimum Wage Boost Will Help Economy

by James Parks, Oct 11, 2006

To hear employers and congressional Republicans tell it, raising the federal minimum wage from a paltry $5.15 an hour to $7.25 will cost jobs and drive the economy down. But 650 economists, including several Nobel Laureates, today said that’s just not true. In fact, raising the minimum wage will have little effect on jobs and will help lift some low-wage workers out of poverty.

Republican leaders in Congress succeeded in preventing an increase in the nation’s minimum wage this year, but the AFL-CIO and working families plan to keep pushing for a new law in the next Congress and to make it an issue in the Nov. 7 elections. Ten years after Congress approved the last raise, the federal minimum buys less than it did in 1951—fewer groceries, far fewer gallons of gasoline, less medicine and less for rent.

The economists, assembled by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and including such heavy-hitters as Nobel winners Kenneth Arrow, Clive Granger, Robert Solow and Joseph Stiglitz, issued a statement that lays out the case for increasing the federal minimum wage:

We believe that a modest increase in the minimum wage would improve the well-being of low-wage workers and would not have the adverse effects that critics have claimed.

While controversy about the precise employment effects of the minimum wage continues, research has shown that most of the beneficiaries are adults, most are female, and the vast majority are members of low-income working families.

As economists who are concerned about the problems facing low-wage workers, we believe the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2005’s proposed phased-in increase in the federal minimum wage to $7.25 falls well within the range of options where the benefits to the labor market, workers, and the overall economy would be positive.

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[Bill McBlueState]

1. k/r

Kicked and recommended. As usual, Republicans get their asses kicked when they go up against expert opinion.

[usregimechange]

2. kick!

[agincourt]

3. Last time we raised the minimum wage,

the economy took off. Social justice is good for the American economy. I wish everybody got that.

[sutz12]

4. It would also boost tax revenues.

[PinkyisBlue]

5. But what about the millionaires?

How would this hike in the minimum wage affect the millionaires? This can't be good for those at the top, who want to exploit cheap labor for all it's worth. I mean, if you raise the minimum wage, you might have to raise the wages of other workers, too, and what good will come of that? And after that, what will the laboring masses want next, health care and affordable housing? :sarcasm:

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Nobel Laureates have a liberal bias, no ?

:evilgrin: