(RNN) – Raising the United States’ minimum wage would boost the income of millions of Americans, but hundreds of thousands would lose their jobs according to a study by the Central Budget Office.
The Central Budget Office projects that raising the U.S. minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 by 2016 would cost about a half-million jobs by late that year. However, the increased income of 16.5 million affected Americans would boost the economy and pull 900,000 people out of poverty.
Response from the left and right began immediately and was predictably contradictory.
Opponents of a minimum-wage increase said the loss of jobs is a deal-breaker regarding congressional legislation.
“This report confirms what we’ve long known: while helping some, mandating higher wages has real costs, including fewer people working. With unemployment Americans’ top concern, our focus should be creating – not destroying – jobs for those who need them most,” a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-OH, said of the report.
A spokeswoman for a nonprofit that favors a minimum wage increase said the projections were overstated.
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Article Courtesy of RNN and WOIO 19 Action News
Picture Courtesy of MGN, RNN and WOIO 19 Action News
