3 Out Of 4 Want Minimum Wage Raised To At Least $10

There is a debate right now over whether the minimum wage should be raised. That wage has lost more than 30% of its buying power since the late 1960's -- and it is no longer a livable wage. While we can debate how much it should be raised, it seems to me that whether it should be raised is a debate that has already been settled.

The Republicans are against raising the minimum wage -- and some of them would like to eliminate it altogether. They claim that raising it would cost jobs, because many businesses could not afford a higher wage. That is a false argument. All studies have shown that raising the minimum wage does not cause any job loss. In fact, raising the minimum wage would be as good for businesses as for workers -- because people would have more money to spend in those businesses (making their profits go up). And all businesses would be operating on a level playing field.

The position the Republicans have taken just puts them at odds with the general public on this issue. A new poll shows that about three-quarters of the public (74%) would like the minimum wage raised to at least $10 an hour -- and 43% would like it raised even higher (to $12 or $15 an hour).

These numbers are from a new Public Policy Polling survey. It was done between October 1st and 4th of a random national sample of 1,338 registered voters, and has a margin of error of 2.7 points.