THE MINIMUM WAGE: A CRUCIAL LABOR STANDARD THAT IS WELL TARGETED TO LOW- AND MODERATE-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS

摘要

The question of whether the minimum wage reduces poverty sounds like a much better question than it is. At one level, the question is trivial: if you are a low-income person working at the current minimum wage, a higher minimum makes you better-off, assuming no reduction in hours or employment (we return to this question below). If we implemented the proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 in three annual steps, 6.4 million workers would fit that description: their household's income is less than $20,000, and their hourly wage is between the current and new minimum (Cooper, 2013).