Pew: The Minimum Wage Dilemma

An article by the Pew Research Center provides a detailed look at the recent report from the Congressional Budget Office outlining the tradeoffs involved with raising the minimum wage.  Those in favor of raising the minimum wage say that it would raise the standard of living for low-wage workers and ease poverty.  Those against say that it would eliminate jobs while raising costs for services across the board.

It turns out that both sides are correct to some degree.  The CBO report projects that incomes for 16.5 million low-wage workers would be raised, but that 500,000 workers would lose their jobs in the process.

Much of this issue also involves the poverty level and the relative value of inflation.  For instance, in 1968, one person making minimum wage could lift three people out of poverty.  But according to Pew, today’s minimum may lift a single person out of poverty, but adding an additional person to the mix will put that family below the poverty threshold.

To read the full report and learn more about how the poverty thresholds work with the minimum wage, click here.