Increasing the Minimum Wage

Last night, President Obama talked about raising the minimum wage, and invoked Gov. Romney in his speech: “So here’s an idea that Governor Romney and I actually agreed on last year: let’s tie the minimum wage to the cost of living, so that it finally becomes a wage you can live on.”

States have already been considering minimum wage increases before the president’s speech last night. The Albany Times-Union reports that New York’s Gov. Cuomo included a $1.50 an hour increase in his executive budget proposal, which would raise the minimum wage in the state to $8.75 this July. Washington Post columnist Matt Miller argued last week that he believes that the minimum wage should be $12.50 an hour, plus health benefits, which would come at a cost to taxpayers and consumers in the form of subsidies for low-wage work and slight increases in prices. A wage you could live on?

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