Source

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."