Full Citation

Title: Coupling a Federal Minimum Wage Hike with Public Investments to Make Work Pay and Reduce Poverty

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2018

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI:

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: For more than a century, advocates have promoted minimum wage laws to protect workers and their families from poverty. Opponents counter that the policy has, at best, small poverty-reducing effects. We summarize the evidence and describe three factors that might dampen the policy’s effects on poverty: imperfect targeting, heterogeneous labor market effects, and interactions with income support programs. To boost the poverty reducing effects of the minimum wage, we propose increasing the federal minimum wage to $12 per hour and temporarily expanding an existing employer tax credit. This is a cost-saving proposal because it relies on regulation and creates no new administrative functions. We recommend using those savings to “make work pay” and improve upward mobility for low-income workers through lower marginal tax rates.

Url: https://www.rsfjournal.org/doi/pdf/10.7758/RSF.2018.4.3.02

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Romich, Jennifer; Hill, Heather, D

Periodical (Full): RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation of the Social Sciences

Issue: 3

Volume: 4

Pages: 22-43

Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS CPS

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Poverty and Welfare

Countries: