Has opebo been vindicated on the $15 minimum wage?

[Torie]

The idea of having a minimum wage that is the same across the US is very poor policy, given the vast differences in cost of living and what the local economy will support across the Fruited Plain. Thus in NY, Mario Cuomo understood that the minimum wage in upstate NY needed to be lower than in the NYC metro area. Otherwise, the upstate economy, already anemic, would become even sicker.

I used to be hostile to the idea of the minimum wage, because it creates barriers to low skilled workers getting jobs, but we have a different ball game with the earned income tax credit and the like. Without a minimum wage, consider this example. Some business pays its workers $5 an hour, and with the earned income tax credit and other federal subsidies, the taxpayers one way of the other might end up paying the worker another $8 an hour, thereby subsidizing the employer by paying a majority of its workers' compensation. Not good, to say the least.

Working through all the public policy ramifications of any scheme to get the right balance is not easy, and its getting more complicated all the time as we (and we should to the extent that we can afford it), try to make the social safety net for those most under financial stress, more robust.