07/24/2023
“A hot jobs market and thriving national economy have pushed wages up, enticing more and more people to find work. And what about inflation? It’s been dropping sharply since the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. Average worker wages are also rising faster than inflation, leaving most working Americans better-off.
Nevertheless, low-wage workers in North Carolina face a very difficult economic landscape. Average wages might be rising, but low wages are still low. Even a remarkable national economic expansion isn’t trickling down to them, let alone equitably, as we are so often assured it will one day by supply-side true believers.
Yet North Carolina’s policymakers have a very powerful tool to use to help the low-wage workers who make our economy run: raising the state minimum wage. Raising North Carolina’s minimum wage, currently equal to the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour, would directly benefit a gigantic swath of our resident workers who are struggling. And best of all, state lawmakers could do it at literally any time they chose. As with most reforms, best time to do it was ten years ago; the next best time is now.”
Summary: The American economy is remarkably strong and still improving Conditions are ideal for raising North Carolina’s state minimum wage Economic arguments against higher minimum wages have been flatly debunked A central fact about the American economy in 2023 is our red-hot jobs market. The....
