With Democrats planning a vote this week on a bill more than doubling the federal minimum wage, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has weighed in with a timely estimate of the potential benefits and costs.
To raise the federal minimum from $7.25 an hour, where it has been for the past 10 years, to $15 an hour over five years, as the Democratic bill would do, would bring a pay increase to 17 million workers whose wages would otherwise be lower than $15 per hour, as well as an additional 10 million low- and moderate-wage workers who would indirectly benefit. Family income…
