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What I've Been Reading This Week: Minimum Wage Edition


Earlier this year, I featured a "What I've Been Reading This Week" post that centered on the Fight for $15 efforts around the country (What I've Been Reading This Week: Fight for $15 Edition).  Since that time, I have come across several good articles on the general push for minimum wage increases in cities and states around the country.  As a result, I wanted to focus on this particular cause for this post.

As always, below are a few articles that caught my eye this week.


Unexpected Fallout From Seattle's $15/Hour Minimum Wage Hike

Warner Huston has a very intriguing look at what is going in Seattle now that the city has implemented a $15/hour minimum wage rate.  As the article explains, many workers in the city are now requesting to work fewer hours so that they can still receive governmental assistance.  Very, very interesting.  It would not surprise me if those who oppose these minimum wage increases start using this as an example of why raising the minimum wage rates might now actually be lifting these workers out of poverty.


The Fight for $15 Pushes Ahead

This is a good summary of the efforts to increase minimum wages around the country, in particular a recent victory in getting the University of California to increase its wages by late 2017.  I wanted to highlight this article from The Dallas Morning News as it includes a good overview of the progress at the state and federal levels to increase minimum wages which I think will give readers a good look at where things stand at this point.


Is a Minimum Wage Increase a Boon or a Job Killer?

Mike Patton has an intriguing analysis of whether a minimum wage increase is actually as beneficial as proponents of the measure argue.  This is an article that should really force readers to pause and consider the effects of these minimum wage bills...while they might be beneficial at one level, the minimum wage increases might actually be doing more harm than good.  As the saying goes, there are two sides to every coin...


A Minimum Wage Increase: A Divisive Issue for Democrats

With an election year coming up, chatter and the "typical" rhetoric about a minimum wage increase has started to receive increased attention.  The Hill provides a good breakdown of where several prominent Democrats stand on a minimum wage increase:  Bernie Sanders ($15/hour); Hillary Clinton ($15/hour for fast food workers); Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi ($12/hour); Barack Obama ($12/hour).  If anything, this shows that while there is a broad consensus that a minimum wage increase is needed, there is a distinct lack of agreement on exactly what number it should move towards.  This article is well worth a read!

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