New CBO Report Destroys The Republican Argument Against Raising The Minimum Wage [View all]

[Triana]

The CBO released a study today that obliterated the Republican argument against raising the minimum wage. Republicans retaliated by trying to distort the report, but they can’t explain away the bad news for the GOP.

. . .

The CBO’s conclusion on employment is that their could be a negative effect, or a zero effect. The CBO report is not a definitive statement that raising the minimum wage will kill jobs. In fact, the research on unemployment as summarized by seven Nobel Prize winners and 600 economists found that moving to $10.10 an hour will have little or no impact on employment.

The CBO also found that increasing the minimum wage will help the middle class and working poor:

Many more low-wage workers would see an increase in their earnings. Of those workers who will earn up to $10.10 under current law, most—about 16.5 million, according to CBO’s estimates—would have higher earnings during an average week in the second half of 2016 if the $10.10 option was implemented. Some of the people earning slightly more than $10.10 would also have higher earnings under that option, for reasons discussed below. Further, a few higher-wage workers would owe their jobs and increased earnings to the heightened demand for goods and services that would result from the minimum-wage increase. . . .

Republicans have argued that most minimum wage workers are teenagers, but the CBO found that only 12% of those earning the minimum wage are teens. Republicans argue that increasing the minimum won’t lift people out of poverty, but the CBO concluded that increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 would lift 900,000 people out of poverty.

THE REST:

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/02/18/cbo-report-destroys-republican-argument-raising-minimum-wage.html