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IPFS News Link • Minimum Wage

Some Progressives Are Flirting With a $24 to $26 Hourly Minimum Wage

• https://fee.org by Brad Polumbo

The #Fightfor15 is old news, apparently. Some progressive activists and academics are now arguing that the minimum wage should be closer to $26 an hour, claiming that this is the level it would've reached if wages had kept up with productivity in recent decades.  

The online discourse all started after the publication of a recent piece from the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research titled "The $26 an Hour Minimum Wage."  

"[A $26 hourly minimum wage] may sound pretty crazy, but that's roughly what the minimum wage would be today if it had kept pace with productivity growth since its value peaked in 1968," progressive economist Dean Baker wrote. "And, having the minimum wage track productivity growth is not a crazy idea. The national minimum wage did in fact keep pace with productivity growth for the first 30 years after a national minimum wage first came into existence in 1938."


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