Justice
A Higher Minimum Wage Could Lift Millions Out of Poverty
With rippling effects on inequality.
The federal minimum-wage legislation that Congress is expected to consider later this year (that Obama will surely mention in his State of the Union) would boost the hourly wage floor in America by nearly 40 percent, from $7.25 to $10.10.
By economist Arindrajit Dube's calculation, that increase could lift as many as 4.6 million non-elderly people out of poverty in the United States. As a result, the population living below the federal poverty line would drop by nearly 10 percent. Most compelling: The change would have the greatest impact on the families that struggle the most, those living in "extreme poverty" below half of the poverty line.