Biden’s claim that with a $15 minimum wage, ‘the whole economy rises’

February 12, 2021 ☼ bideneconomyminimum-wage

Source: The Washington Post - Link

“I do think that we should have a minimum wage, stand by itself, $15 an hour and work your way up to the — it doesn’t have to be boom. And all the economics show, if you do that, the whole economy rises.”

But economists weigh in:

“None of this evidence says the minimum wage ‘lifts the economy,’ and there is simply no research basis for that conclusion,” Neumark told The Fact Checker in an email.

but another opinion

“Overall the most up-to-date body of research from U.S., U.K. and other developed countries points to a very muted effect of minimum wages on employment, while significantly increasing the earnings of low-paid workers,” Dube said in an email. “Importantly, this was found to be the case even for the most recent ambitious policies, like in some of the states that are on a path to $15 an hour.”

and the Fact Checker also notes:

The Congressional Budget Office on Monday weighed in with its own assessment of the Raise the Wage Act, the vehicle in Congress for Biden’s proposal. The CBO found 17 million workers, or 10 percent of the projected labor force, would get higher pay. The cumulative pay of directly and potentially affected workers would increase, on net, by $333 billion. Meanwhile, the number of people in poverty would be reduced by 900,000 by 2025. But another 1.4 million workers, just under 1 percent, would lose their jobs, with about half dropping out of the labor force by 2025, the CBO said — backing the economists concerned about possible job loss.

So Biden gets two Pinocchios as a result of not telling the whole story.