A $7.25 Minimum Wage Would be a Useful Step in Helping Working Families Escape Poverty

from The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Here's a link to a position paper from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on how an increase in the minimum wage could help working families. According to the Center , in the early 1990s there was basic agreement that parents working full time should not have to raise their children in poverty. The yardstick used to measure achievement of this goal was whether a minimum-wage earner in a family of four earned enough (after subtraction of payroll taxes), together with the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and food stamps, to have an income at or above the poverty line. This goal was reached in the late 1990s, as a result of an EITC increase enacted in 1993 and a minimum-wage increase enacted in 1996.

A $7.25 Minimum Wage Would be a Useful Step in Helping Working Families Escape Poverty