Minimum Wage Increases Should Be Evaluated by Their Costs and Benefits

From the Economic Policy Institute (http://www.epi.org/):

In a new report, EPI’s David Cooper, Lawrence Mishel, and Ben Zipperer argue that increases in the minimum wage should be evaluated the way we evaluate other policies—by looking at their costs and benefits. Critics who cite potential job loss to reject bolder minimum wage increases are ignoring the benefits of boosting low-wage workers’ total earnings, the authors write. Because there is a high degree of churn in the low-wage labor market, any employment reductions would likely be spread among affected workers, who would work a little less each year but earn more per year thanks to the new higher hourly rate. Read the report »