The pros and cons of a $15 minimum wage

The movement to increase the federal minimum wage is gaining steam. What are the benefits and costs?

Protesters.
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A Congressional Budget Office analysis released last week "makes clear that the benefits of a $15-an-hour minimum wage would heavily outweigh the downside," said Michael Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times. The agency found that as many as 1.3 million people could be lifted out of poverty if the federal minimum wage rose from $7.25 in stages over five years, boosting the wages of 27 million Americans. The CBO said the change might also lead to the loss of 1.3 million jobs. Opponents have seized on that point, but the agency acknowledges it is "manifestly more uncertain than most of the rest" of the analysis. This uncertainty sounds familiar, said Noah Smith at Bloomberg. Many CBO studies rely on sifting through a large and often contradictory body of research. The most recent studies, however, tend "to find very small job losses from raising pay floors." In many places and industries, companies "hold wages below what a competitive market would offer." A higher minimum could just restore the competitive balance between workers and employers.

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