American Economic Association and Federal Minimum Wage

Bernie Sanders: They said it would provide a much-needed boost to low-income workers while causing little or no job loss, according to Business Week. Fifteen dollars an hour is another story. In January 2014, seven Nobel laureates and eight ex-presidents of the American Economic Association signed a letter backing a federal minimum wage of $10.10 an hour by 2016, up from $7.25. None of those luminaries signed the letter in July that endorsed a Senate bill introduced by presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to raise the federal minimum to $15 an hour by 2020. In such places, $15 an hour may have large negative employment effects, Ronald Ehrenberg, a Cornell University labour economist, wrote in an e-mail. Regional economic differences are one reason a lot of economists are nervous about jumping to $15: A wage floor that right for New York or San Francisco could be too high for Brownsville, Texas; Gadsden, Alabama; or Ponce, Puerto Rico. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.