CBO Minimum Wage Report Shows $15 Wage Would Leave Workers “Unambiguously Better Off”
“The report finds unequivocally that the benefits of this bill outweigh the costs, with the bill giving 27.3 million low wage workers a raise and lifting 1.3 million people out of poverty.“
“Today’s CBO report shows just how important it is to pass the Raise the Wage Act as soon as possible. The report finds unequivocally that the benefits of this bill outweigh the costs, with the bill giving 27.3 million low wage workers a raise and lifting 1.3 million people out of poverty. This is the kind of radical change that millions of struggling American workers need. Even with an inflated estimate of job losses, this report shows that low-wage workers as a whole would end up unambiguously better off as a result of the Raise the Wage Act.
Even if the report’s estimated job loss, around 1.3 million, were accurate, this bill would still be an incredibly positive net change. That estimate, however, is much higher than what most research shows. The CBO report is radically inconsistent with the existing literature on the issue of minimum wage increases and job loss. It contradicts the emerging conventional wisdom among economists, including 134 who recently signed a letter supporting a $15 minimum wage, that minimum wage increases do not cause any meaningful levels of job loss. In fact, an overwhelming number of studies show that minimum wage increases, including up to $15 an hour, raise wages without losing jobs, making the CBO estimate of 1.7 million.”
For further comments or questions, please contact Sam Quigley at sam@patrioticmillionaires.org.
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