Your editorial “Tom Steyer’s $22 Minimum Wage” (Feb. 13) points out that a major problem with excessively increasing the minimum wage is lost jobs. But it fails to note the very significant impact even an increase to $15 (let alone $22) would have on American family income.
The Congressional Budget Office’s median estimate is that a federal minimum wage of $15 would result in the loss of 1.3 million jobs and would raise wages for 17 million workers who would otherwise make less than $15 per hour and, potentially, that 10 million additional workers with wages slightly above the new federal minimum also could see increased wages. To some, particularly those who wouldn’t lose their jobs, that might sound like a decent trade-off. It is not.
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