$15 Minimum Wage Will Do More Harm Than Good

The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives voted to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. The current minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said, “The Raise the Wage Act gives up to 33 million Americans a long overdue raise — 33 million Americans — and lifts so many people out of poverty.”

Bernie Sanders, who is running for president as a Democrat said that people deserve a “living wage.” He further said, “I want to applaud the thousands and thousands of workers, from coast to coast, people who work at McDonald’s, people who work at Burger King, people who work all over this country, who have stood up over the years and demanded that the federal minimum wage be raised to a living wage of $15 per hour.”

Others, like the Economic Policy Institute, argue that America needs a $15 minimum wage, because workers deserve it. It would raise the pay for millions of workers who need the wage increase.

But a $15 per hour minimum wage will do far more harm than good.

The Congressional Budget office (CBO) recently reported that gradually raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour would lift 1.3 million Americans out of poverty. The problem is that it will cause up to 3 million workers to lose their jobs.