Comments for Issue Brief Finds Low-wage Workers Are Older and Better Educated than Ever at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 4 out of 4 comments http://www.cepr.net Wed, 19 Jun 2013 05:35:35 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/low-wage-workers-are-older-and-better-educated-than-ever#comment-15682 Thanks for your response, sorry if I was abrasive, I do love the field of econ and thanks for the well-thought out answer. And I too believe that your work is quite fine and I look forward to everyone's work. I will read up on all of the work mentioned in your post. Thanks! - Will Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:58:29 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/low-wage-workers-are-older-and-better-educated-than-ever#comment-15679 The work you are doing is quite fine and I look forward to every post. - ltr Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:16:53 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/low-wage-workers-are-older-and-better-educated-than-ever#comment-15674 Hi Will, Thanks for your comment. Neumark and Wascher believe that the minimum wage has no effect on reducing poverty for two reasons. First, they think that the minimum wage causes young, less-skilled workers to lose their jobs. This is a view I don't share, based on extensive research finding little or no negative impact on employment from moderate increases in the minimum wage (see, for example, Card and Krueger's 1995 book or their 2000 American Economic Review paper; the recent work of Dube and Reich and colleagues; and the excellent metastudy by Doucouliagos and Stanley in the British Journal of Industrial Relations). Second, Neumark and Wascher note that a relatively small share of minimum-wage workers are in families below the poverty line. This is correct, but this is in part a reflection of our absurdly low poverty line. Some minimum-wage workers are teenagers from better off families, but a large share contribute substantially to family earnings of families at the bottom and the middle of the income distribution (see, for example, this paper by EPI's Liana Fox, http://www.epi.org/publication/bp178/). Raising the minimum wage is not only about fighting poverty. It is about rewarding work, lowering inequality, and setting a norm that all of us should share in economic growth. Our recent series of papers show that over the last four decades the minimum wage has failed to keep pace with inflation, the average worker's wage, productivity growth, college tuition, health-care costs, and now, even the substantial increase in workers' experience and educational attainment. We are far below where we were when we were a much poorer country, which I think makes an increase overdue. John - John Schmitt Mon, 02 Apr 2012 08:58:03 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/low-wage-workers-are-older-and-better-educated-than-ever#comment-15669 Have you guys read: Minimum Wage by Neumark and Wascher? I think this mirrors one of their key points and a point largely accepted in the MW debate, that the minimum wage doesn't go to the typical blue collar worker, it goes to the college educated second earner, part time worker, summer worker and to extrapulate your conclusion without recongizing this is a mistake. Show me a study where an increase in MW elevates poverty measures? Or is a productive vehical to distrbute wealth. I am the biggest liberal in the world, and did my graduate work in health econ of homeless. Am I confused? - Will Mon, 02 Apr 2012 06:00:11 +0100