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The movement for "living wage" laws -- that's a minimum wage, plus insurance and other benefits -- is gaining force with 75 hotly debated campaigns currently underway (see the map). Debates often hang on whether such mandates take jobs away from the poorest and least-skilled workers. Two Stanford researchers are trying to push the discussion further by studying a mathematical model in which both unemployment and profit margins stay steady after implementing a living wage on federal and state levels. The main findings drive home well-known truths: "Raising minimum wages poorly targets the poor," and "virtually as much money goes to the highest-income families as to the lowest." The study is online: "Winners and Losers of Federal and State Minimum Wages."
