Most Americans Want A Substantially Higher Minimum Wage

This chart reflects the results of the Public Religion Research Institute's 2015 American Values Survey. They surveyed 2,695 adults between September 11th and October 4th of this year, and the survey has a 2.6 point margin of error.

There's a ton of good stuff in their new survey, and I urge you to follow the link above and peruse it for yourself. I may bring you some other parts of the survey in the future, but right now I found the minimum wage part of the survey most interesting.

It shows that 69% of the American public (about 7 out of 10 people) would support raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, and a clear majority of 59% (about 6 out of 10 people) would support raising it even higher -- to $15.00 an hour.

That did not surprise me, not did the overwhelming support for a substantial raise among Democrats. But I was pleasantly surprised to learn that 60% of Republicans would support a raise to $10.10 an hour (although only 32% would raise it higher to $15.00 an hour).

It shows that Americans are starting to realize that the current minimum wage ($7.25 an hour) is not a livable wage -- and just keeps millions of full-time workers living in poverty. That just isn't right. No one willing to work hard in a full-time job (ANY full-time job) should be making a livable wage -- and should not have to live in poverty.

Republican officials have come up with all kinds of excuses why the minimum wage should not be raised. They are all lies -- including the biggest lie of all (that raising the minimum wage would cause mass lay-offs). That simply makes no sense (and has been shown to be untrue in many studies). Businesses will hire and keep the number of workers it takes to properly service their customers -- no more and no less. If they hire too many workers, it will cut unnecessarily into profits -- and if they hire too few workers, customer service will suffer and they will lose many of those customers to competitors.

The truth is that raising the minimum wage to a livable level will benefit nearly everyone in this country -- workers, businesses, and even the unemployed. The raise will produce an upward pressure on all wages (benefitting both low-wage and other workers). Most of that new money will be spent in the economy (increasing demand for goods/services), and that increased demand will increase business profits. It will also create new jobs, because businesses will need to hire more workers to meet the increased demand for their goods/services. And this increase in wages, demand, and business profits will boost the economy as a whole (and result in more government revenue, even if taxes remain at the current level).

Republican officials are on the wrong side of this issue -- and that is just one more reason why they must be voted out of power in the next election.