Minimum Wage Fight: Here We Go Again

By Elizabeth G. Olson – February 19, 2014

CNN Fortune

Following the proposal by Democrats to increase the U.S. minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10, the Congressional Budget Office released a non-partisan analysis of the costs and benefits of the action.  Committee on Global Thought Co-Chair Joseph Stiglitz comments on the CBO’s report and defends criticisms of the negative impacts on employment the higher minimum wage may cause.  The report, which says that an increase in the minimum wage would benefit 16.5 million employees currently earning less than $10.10 and lift 900,000 Americans out of poverty, highlights the potential downside of 500,000 currently-employed workers losing their jobs.

Economists like Stiglitz dispute the GOP’s main takeaway from the report, arguing that the bulk of the academic literature indicates a far more benign impact of a higher wage on employment. – MSNBC

In a report for CNN Fortune, Stiglitz states that the CBO’s report “has underestimated the benefits and overestimated the costs” of a higher minimum wage. The report by CNN discusses the viewpoints of politicians and economists on the impacts of a minimum wage increase and the analysis of released by the CBO.

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