Eli Lehrer: Hiking the Minimum Wage Won't Help the Poor

The ground has been shifting in the battle over
the minimum wage. With President Obama’s proposal to hike the
national minimum from $7.25 to $9 an hour stalled in Congress,
local labor activists have been aiming even higher, getting behind
a vastly higher minimum wage of $15 an hour. The proposals are
gaining steam. The small city of SeaTac, Wash., which includes
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, already has a $15 minimum in
force, while Seattle plans to implement one over time. Similar
“super-minimum” proposals also are under consideration in cities
like San Francisco and Chicago. Recent state-level legislation will
phase in a minimum wage of greater than $10 in California,
Connecticut, Maryland, Hawaii and Vermont. Massachusetts’ minimum
will rise to $11 by January 2017, while the District of Columbia’s
is set to rise to $11.50 by July 2016.

Raising the minimum wage is simply a terrible way to help the
poor, writes El Lehrer. Even if it’s not as disastrous as some
market advocates claim, it’s likely to do more harm than good.

View this article.