Raise worker pay to boost economy

John Marchese, Las Vegas

Monday, Aug. 12, 2013 | 2:02 a.m.

It is time to catch up with 1968. Thirty million minimum wage workers are making less today than they did 45 years ago. Had the federal minimum wage kept pace with inflation since 1968, it would be $10.56 instead of today’s $7.25 per hour.

In those 45 years, the minimum wage has lost one-third of its value; in the same time, average CEO compensation has skyrocketed more than 900 percent.

Critics say raising the minimum wage would increase unemployment and harm small businesses, and that most minimum wage workers are just part-time teenage workers.

Studies have shown that increases to the minimum wage did not increase unemployment; two-thirds of minimum wage workers are employed by large, profitable corporations; and more than 75 percent of minimum wage workers are at least 20 years old.

A report from the Economic Policy Institute shows that raising the minimum wage to $10.50 could add at least $60 billion in consumer spending to the economy. And a Chicago Federal Reserve study shows that for each dollar increase to the minimum wage, the result is $2,800 more annual spending from a worker’s household.

On top of all of this, polls show that 70 percent of Americans support increasing the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation. Public support. Better jobs. Economic stimulus. What is Congress waiting for?