White House Calls CBO Minimum Wage Report Flawed

Because they found economists who say otherwise

The White House on Tuesday pushed back on a new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report that found raising the minimum wage to $10.10 would cost 500,000 jobs by 2016.

Jason Furman, the chairman of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, said the CBO's finding is flawed.

"CBO's estimates of the impact of raising the minimum wage on employment does not reflect the current consensus view of economists," he said in a blog post. "The bulk of academic studies, have concluded that the effects on employment of minimum wage increases in the range now under consideration are likely to be small to nonexistent."

Furman highlighted the positive findings of the CBO report, starting with the estimate that 16.5 million workers would see their incomes boosted because of an increase in the minimum wage. The report also found a wage hike would lift 900,000 people out of poverty.