Does CBO underestimate job losses caused by minimum wage increase? Former Labor Dept. chief economist thinks so.
People – and by people I mean pundits and economists – can’t seem to quit talking about the CBO minimum wage report. Diana Furchtgott-Roth, former chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor, has one of the tougher takes on the analysis. In Market Watch, she suggests that CBO seriously underestimates the job losses that […]
24th of February 2014
After Friday's White House meeting, Inslee muses about raising the minimum wage for state workers
The Seattle Times reported Friday that Gov. Inslee is considering an increase in the minimum wage paid state employees and contractors. His comments came after he and other Democratic governor’s met with the president at the White House. As Brad Shannon writes in The News Tribune, it won’t be happening any time soon. “It’s going […]
A must-read column examines the $15 minimum wage from the perspective of a small restaurant owner who opposes it
Danny Westneat’s column in Sunday’s Seattle Times should be required reading for anyone concerned about the impact of a $15 minimum wage on Seattle businesses. I can’t do it justice in this post and encourage you to click through and read it now. He frames the column around restaurant owner John Platt, whom he describes […]
19th of February 2014
CBO estimates of job losses caused by minimum wage reflect mainstream economic analysis
Following its estimate of job losses likely to result from lifting the federal minimum wage to $10.10, the Congressional Budget Office is on the receiving end of some none-too-gentle second guessing. For example, from this AP story, Jason Furman, chairman of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, and council member Betsey Stevenson referred in […]
From SeaTac to Chattanooga, tracing the links between the minimum wage and union organizing in the South
Small elections have big consequences. We know that in Washington. Consider the SeaTac Prop. 1 vote for a $15 minimum wage (and a host of other labor-protection measures) and the Boeing Machinists vote that secured the Boeing 777X work here. A similarly consequential vote took place at the Volkswagon plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, last week. […]
18th of February 2014
New CBO report on federal minimum wage: 500,000 jobs lost if wage goes to $10.10; most increased earnings go to families not in poverty
Today’s minimum wage report from the Congressional Budget Office recasts the national minimum wage debate. Though couched in the carefully nuanced phrasing of the famously staid nonpartisan research office, it makes clear that hiking the minimum wage has employment consequences, contrary to the claims of proponents. The 40-page report, half of it a methodological appendix, […]
Campaign for higher minimum wage inspired by the Occupy movement?
That’s one conclusion that could be drawn from this excellent NW News Network story by Austin Jenkins. But David Rolf of the Service Employees International Union says there was something missing: “Occupy didn’t have a long term theory of how to make change and it didn’t have very crisp demands.” Rolf says that started to […]
10th of February 2014
Stats on minimum wage workers
With proposals to increase the minimum wage in the state, there’s a lot of discussion about who the minimum wage workers are. For example, see this Everett Herald op-ed by Reps. Luis Moscoso and Mike Sells. We’ve written on it as well; see here and here. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, of workers […]
31st of January 2014
WA ranks #42 in share of tax filers claiming Earned Income Tax Credit
The Tax Foundation’s tax map this week shows EITC claims as a share of filers by state. Washington ranks No. 42. Go here for a good explanation of the EITC. BTW, today is Earned Income Tax Credit Day. Who knew? The Tax Foundation summarizes the general resul. Lower-income, southern states had a higher proportion of […]