“Today’s CBO report reinforces what we already know: raising the minimum wage is good policy. This report shows that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour would give 27 million workers a raise, increase their income by $333 billion over ten years, lift 1 million Americans out of poverty, drive wages up for 10 million Americans already earning more than $15 an hour, and significantly reduce government spending on SNAP, the child tax credit, and the earned income tax credit. Raising the minimum wage will significantly impact both federal spending and revenue, which qualifies it for budget reconciliation. 

The facts are undeniable. Raising the minimum wage is good for workers, it’s good for the economy, and it’s good for the country as a whole. There’s no argument otherwise.

Opponents of raising the minimum wage will attempt to twist this report for their own misguided purposes, but even with a deeply flawed methodology that ignores the modern economic consensus on this issue, the CBO’s worst case scenario is still overwhelmingly positive. 

• The CBO’s ridiculous estimate of 1.4 million jobs lost (which contradicts the vast majority of research that shows raising the minimum wage has little to no negative effect on employment) still indicates that as a whole, low-wage workers end up better off with a higher minimum wage when considering total wage distribution. 
• The report’s estimate of a $54 billion addition to the federal deficit over ten years (which contradicts research showing that raising the minimum wage would save the government tens of billions of dollars a year) ends up amounting to $5.4 billion per year, or less than one sixth of one percent of the annual federal budget, a negligible amount. Much of this increased spending would come from paying Medicaid care workers — who are often paid egregiously-low wages for extremely important services — a fair wage. That would be a good thing.”