Slow Boring

Share this post

Raise the minimum wage

www.slowboring.com

Raise the minimum wage

It's time for centrist wonks to be pragmatic

Matthew Yglesias
Jan 22, 2021
158
291
Share this post

Raise the minimum wage

www.slowboring.com
(Scott Olsen / Getty Images)

Raising the minimum wage to $15/hour is broadly popular with the mass public, enjoys healthy political support among Democratic Party elected officials, and would on the whole raise incomes and living standards for disadvantaged people while coming primarily at the expense of relatively affluent people.

In other words, it’s a good idea. Joe Biden should do it. Congress should do it.

And most of all, centrist wonk types who feel, correctly, that minimum wage hikes are not optimal policy should do what they often tell left-wing people to do and be practical about it. Some day, perhaps, the wonks themselves will work out a consensus around a more optimal system of explicit wage subsidies and start doing the spadework to build political support for it. It’s a perfectly reasonable idea in theory, and I tend to think that — just like a single-payer health care system — it’s probably a better idea than the current trajectory of wage regulation.

But one can’t let th…

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Slow Boring to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2023 Matthew Yglesias
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing