I think the baseline currently is far too low even for rural areas and $12.50 is a fair amount. While the right likes to claim that the minimum wage increases unemployment, the evidence does not give it nearly the clarity they claim and there seem to be little to no employment impacts, while boosting the incomes if millions-this is socially and economically beneficial. It's time people are paid wages they can live on and this is a key step that we should take as a nation with few risks and many benefits-I strongly endorse this bill and believe it is an eminently reasonable approach.
The impact is mostly in terms of the lower minimum wages though and yes I think there is a certain capacity for raising it with minimal impacts. However there are always impacts, one is that smaller business are disadvantage compared to big business and another is that some area are impacted more than others because standards of living differ.
I realize that the right likes to talk about it yes and the left comes back with no evidence of impact, I think both are out of touch to some extent. I think there is a space where you can raise the minimum wage with no net negatives, certainly from $7.15 obviously, but that diminishes the higher it gets.
It isn't being raised $5 it is a much smaller raise due to the Atladian situation and given the points I have raised and how even this minimum wage is below many living wages and is just a first step to finally getting wages on track with living wages it is responsible and the benefits outweigh the risks. There is theoretically a minimum wage increase that would cause more harm than benefit but this is not it, no where close, it is reasonable and
necessary, Atlasian workers need higher wages and the current system simply does not do enough.
