CBO Projects Employment Loss from Minimum Wage Hike Would be Comparable to Impact of Iraq War Size Increase in Military Spending

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report today on the impact of an increase in the minimum wage, which projected that it would lead to a loss of 500,000 jobs. This was quickly seized on by opponents of the minimum wage hike as implying a disastrous loss of jobs. Unfortunately, some of the reporting on the issue was less clear than it could have been.

The CBO projections imply that 500,000 fewer people will be employed at low wage jobs. It did not say that 500,000 people would l...