NPR noted that the minimum wage will increase today for the first time in almost ten years. The news item mentioned the dispute over the impact of the higher wage, saying that "some economists" argue it will cost jobs and therefore hurt the poor, while "advocates" say that it has little impact on employment and will give poor workers more money. The problem with this description is that there is now a vast body of research by many of the country's most prominent labor economists that shows that increases in the minimum wage have little or no impact on employment. In other words, while there are economists on both sides of this issue, the majority of economists who have researched the topic would take the position that NPR attributed to "advocates."
--Dean Baker
