create jobs Archives

New Report: Raising the Minimum Wage Create Jobs

Raising the minimum wage would help the working poor and give the entire economy a boost, a new analysis finds.

If the minimum wage rose to $10.10 per hour, as Senate Democrats and President Barack Obama propose, 27.8 million workers would see their wages go up as a direct or indirect result of the boost, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. These workers would take home about $35 billion in additional wages and they would probably spend it, as low-income people living with little financial cushion tend to do.

The result: During the initial phase-in period, the U.S. economy would grow by about $22 billion, EPI found. The growth in the U.S. economy would result in about 85,000 new jobs, according to EPI. That counters arguments from conservative economists that raising the minimum wage could actually hurt the working poor by making employers hesitant to hire more workers. (A notion that’s been proven wrong by some economists and remains hotly debated.)

The analysis is an update to a similar report released by EPI earlier this year. It takes into account the fact that five states recently raised their minimum wage, meaning workers living in those states would feel less of an impact from a federal minimum wage boost than when EPI published the original research in March.

Debunking The Fox And Limbaugh Lie Machine

I like the way Dave Johnson started his article on this subject.

He gathered the following three charts from the Budget of the United States Government: Historical Tables Fiscal Year 2012, and advised us that the next time “your right-wing brother-in-law” who “…is plugged into the FOX-Limbaugh Lie Machine, and keeps sending you emails about “Obama spending” and “Obama deficits” and how the “Stimulus” just made things worse…”, these are the charts you should show him.

Keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best. Although you will be presenting that person with the facts, the FOX-Limbaugh Lie Machine is very effective. Most, subjected to their daily dose of lies, don’t even know they’re infected.

Here goes!

Chart 1 – Spending

Under George Bush, spending increased by 88%.
Under Barack Obama, spending increased by 7.2%. Yet, this President is being blamed by the right for massive spending.

Chart 2 – Deficit

On the left of this chart, we see Bush increases the deficit by $1.4 trillion. This was after taking office with a $128 billion surplus from his predecessor, Bill Clinton.
On the right of this chart, we see Barack Obama temporarily increasing the deficit, mainly because when he came into office, George Bush’s fiscal policies were still in effect. For the remaining years of Obama’s term/s, deficit projection is expected to be at reduced levels, as compared to that of Bush.

Chart 3 – The Stimulus

This one is so simple, even Fox dedicated viewers could see what’s happening. When George Bush left office, as shown in the red, his policies caused a consistent job loss in the private market every month. After Obama took office, and after signing the stimulus into law, the blue lines shows fewer and fewer monthly job loss, eventually resulting in job gains. And as the chart says, July marked the 17th consecutive month of private sector job growth under President Obama.

But then again, if your brother-in-law is already brainwashed by the FOX-Limbaugh Lie Machine, charts like this showing the truth are not what he’s looking for. For him, it may already be too late. But try anyway.