I have a hard time reconciling calls for living wage legislation with my left-brained common sense and fundamental knowledge of economics. What’s a progressive to do?
In this corner: No Longer Getting By: An Increase in the Minimum Wage Is Long Overdue by EPI.
In the other, the Angry Economist: “You can ignore economics, but economics isn’t going to ignore you.”
That’s a good point. Not having it indexed for inflation seems really stupid, whether or not it works, fundamentally.
Right. Nelson’s real position (http://angry-economist.russ… “http://angry-economist.russnelson.com/minimum-wage.html)”) is that there shouldn’t be a minimum wage, so his position on whether the minimum wage should be raised is just not that interesting.
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I think one can separate the arguments “should there be a minimum wage” and “should the minimum wage be raised”. I’m still not sure if a minimum wage is a good idea, but given that we have one, I think it ought to be raised to keep up with inflation and the poverty level. Failing to raise it (as a “compromise” between raising it and abolishing it) would seem to defeat the purpose and cloud the evidence for whether it works or not.