A new report from the Congressional Budget Office estimates the Democrats’ proposal will kill 1.4 million jobs. Meanwhile, this month, a CNBC/SurveyMonkey poll of small businesses showed that one-third said they would lay off workers if the minimum wage went to $15 an hour.
Nationwide, some 17 million workers now make less than $15 an hour. A wage floor of $13 an hour full-time would move the average poor person out of poverty. The CBO estimates that a minimum wage hike would thus move about 900,000 people out of poverty.
Tragically, that’s far fewer than the 1.4 million who will lose jobs instead of gaining valuable training, skills and experience so they can earn more later.