Consider This...

June 2, 2006

There’s still some opposition to the final passage of a North Carolina minimum-wage increase.

There shouldn’t be any.

Today the Common Sense Foundation released a study that shows that North Carolina ’s working families need a minimum-wage increase. The study, available in PDF format by clicking here, was written by CSF intern Sarah Carucci.

While each chamber of the General Assembly has passed a different version of the dollar increase in the state minimum, there is no guarantee yet that the increase will become law. The Common Sense study shows that even though a much larger increase in the minimum (as well as indexing) is needed to combat growing inequalities, an immediate increase of at least a dollar is absolutely necessary to help hard-working families who are living in poverty.

The CSF study reveals the damage being done to the lives of more than 130,000 North Carolinians by the myths that keep the minimum wage far below the federal living income standard. Addressing the myths one by one, the study demolishes them with statistical evidence.

Wage increases help families by providing them with more money to spend, which in turn helps businesses recoup any increased labor costs. And it costs the government nothing either.