Hillary Clinton is All in on the $15 Minimum Wage. Here's Why That's A Bad Thing
At this week's Democratic debate in Brooklyn, NY, Hillary Clinton went all in on the $15-an-hour minimum wage.
As Peter Suderman noted in his debate recap:
Facing off against rival candidate Bernie Sanders on CNN, Hillary Clinton seemed to endorse the idea of a national $15 minimum. Asked whether she would, as president, sign a bill mandating a $15 federal minimum, Clinton said, emphatically: "Of course I would."
That's a new one for Clinton. As she noted in the rest of her response, she has previously voiced support for activists pushing for a $15 minimum at the local level. But she's also endorsed tiered approaches that raise wages higher and faster in wealthier urban areas than in their poorer rural counterparts. And when asked about a national minimum, she's always said that as president she would try to raise the national wage floor to $12 an hour.
Legislation to boost the minimum wage to $15-an-hour was recently approved in New York and California to address concerns of income inequality and wage stagnation. But George Mason University economist Don Boudreaux tells Nick Gillespie that increasing the minimum wage is the "cruelest thing you can do" to workers because it destroys opportunities for low skilled job seekers.
Catch the interview below.