Despite the flippant tone of that title above, it is heartening to see a spirit of compromise and a desire for progress among the new U.S. Congress and the White House. In a recent Yahoo! new article, Dems to Seek GOP Aid on Wage Hike, incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid notes “We intend to reach out to President Bush and our Republican colleagues in Congress. The last four years have shown that a political party in Congress acting alone can accomplish nothing”.

For his part, President Bush has indicated a willingness to consider a federal minimum-wage hike as well as a compromise on the controversial “No Child Left Behind” education law. A minimum wage hike would be the first since 1997 and would likely be a breath of fresh air for many. Though it has been argued that increasing the minimum wage decreases companies’ willingness and ability to hire more workers, and can lead to layoffs, there is little evidence to support the notion. Other opponents of minimum wage hikes note that minimum wage workers are most often teenagers who are part of financially secure and that the increases are therefore a detriment to business more so than assistance for poverty-level workers. I’ve seen no evidence either way for this argument, and will leave it alone, at least for the time being.

Tags: minimum wage, wage hike

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