Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said on Wednesday that a report released by the Congressional Budget Office proves that increasing the minimum wage would lead to fewer jobs and less opportunity for workers.
Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 in three steps between 2014 and 2016 would lead to approximately 500,000 lost jobs, according to the CBO report. The report concluded that there’s a chance the move would lead to anything from “a slight reduction” in employment to 1 million jobs lost.
Alexander, the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, called for workforce training and job creation measures rather than a higher minimum wage.
“This CBO report reiterates a fundamental principle of our free-market economy: increasing the minimum wage eliminates jobs, cuts off the bottom rung of the economic ladder and reduces opportunity,” Alexander said. “Instead of minimum wages, the goal should be higher family incomes. To do that, we should liberate the free enterprise system from Obama regulations and make it easier to create jobs, provide more job training, and offer more choices of good schools to children of low-income parents.”
If the minimum wage were raised to $9 by 2016, an estimated 100,000 jobs would be cut. Approximately 7.6 million workers who earn minimum wage would receive more take-home pay, and the move would also lead to higher pay for those who currently make more than minimum wage, according to the CBO report.