The costs and benefits of raising the minimum wage
Is it too much for businesses? Or too little for workers?
Left-wing advocates applaud this week’s 70-cent hike in the national minumum wage as “a boon for the so-called working poor,” said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. But most minimum-wage workers are teenagers or spouses earning a second income for families that are doing just fine. Imposing unnecessary burdens on employers is never a good idea, “but the timing for this latest minimum-wage hike, amid a weak economy, could hardly be worse.”
Actually, the timing might be the best part of this raise, said the Norman, Okla., Transcript in an editorial. This boost to $6.55 an hour for the nation’s lowest-paid workers “came just as most Americans are trying to keep ahead with higher gasoline and food prices and surcharges levied on everything from freight to flowers.”
This will hardly be enough to match the recent run-up in gas and grocery prices, said Holly Sklar in the Raleigh, N.C., News & Observer. In fact, "it's so little, so late that workers will still make less than they did in 1997, adjusting for the increased cost of living, and way less than in 1968.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“So how much would be enough?” said the Charleston, S.C., Post and Courier in an editorial. The minimum wage is set to jump again next summer, to $7.25 an hour, capping a 40-percent leap in just three years. This kind of meddling raises costs for employers, forcing some small businesses to cut jobs, and “risks stifling the free market upon which all levels of wage-earners depend.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
India elections start amid violence, hate speech accusations
Talking Points Narendra Modi seeks a third term while critics worry about the future of the country's democracy
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
'Biden is smart to keep the border-security pressure on'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Bird flu worries mount as virus found in milk, cows
Speed Read The FDA found traces of the virus in pasteurized grocery store milk
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published