Rep. Lynn Hemingway’s (D- Salt Lake City) “Living Wage” bill (HB 73) would raise the minimum wage in Utah from $7.25/hour to $10.25/hour. According thePoverty in America Living Wage Calculator, a living wage for a Utah family with two adults and two children is $18.54/hour. That same family would need to earn $10.60/hour to hit the poverty line. President Obama is pushing for a higher federal minimum wage, saying that "nobody who works full-time should ever have to raise a family in poverty."
Opponents of the minimum wage say that such measures are actually counterproductive, often leading to a reduction in hours & loss of jobs. We’ll examine the issue on Tuesday’s AU with Dale Cox, President of the Utah AFL-CIO and William Shughart, J. Fish Smith Professor in Public Choice in the USU Huntsman School of Business.
