Governor Easley of North Carolina signed into law Thursday a bill raising the state’s minimum wage by one dollar, to 6.15 an hour, effective at the beginning of January.
I’ve long had an interest in seeing an increase in the minimum wage. Economically it makes sense, because those earning the minimum wage will be able to put more money into the economy, spurring growth from the lower end of the income spectrum–Trickle-up economics instead of trickle-down. When the governor proposed a statewide increase in the minimum wage, due in large part to Congress’s inaction on the issue for nine years now, I wrote to my state legislators asking them to support the governor’s proposal, and it’s gratifying to me to see the state government take action to help the workers most in need of economic justice.
If your objective is to help the working poor, an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit would be a much more effective and equitable way of doing so than raising the minimum wage.