The AP has issued another fact check on the DNC, this time targeting Cory ‘Spartacus’ Booker for lying about the effects of a higher minimum wage. In the fact check, they quote Booker as saying “Together, with Joe and Kamala in the White House, we’ll raise the minimum wage so no one who works a full-time job lives in poverty.” But they say that’s just not true:
THE FACTS: That’s an improbable outcome for the $15 minimum wage supported by Biden.
A 2019 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour would lift 1.3 million Americans out of poverty, a small fraction of the roughly 38 million people living in poverty in 2018.
Even worse, they point out that Americans will lose jobs because of such an increase:
Moreover, the report estimated a $15 minimum wage would cost 1.3 million people their jobs because they would be priced out of the market.
They wouldn’t be just priced out of the market. The market itself would struggle due to the higher prices of goods and services caused by the the increases and even more could lose their jobs.
Altogether, some 17 million people might see higher pay, the office said, but not enough to raise most who are below the poverty line above it.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report on the working poor in 2018, 3.7 million people who usually worked full-time were below the poverty level. That finding suggests that a $15 federal minimum would not take all full-time workers out of poverty. And, of course, it would still leave millions of part-time workers and the unemployed in poverty.
Once again I’m surprised to see such a legitimate fact check from the AP on such a bedrock issue for Democrats. Someone at the AP is going to get yelled at by Democrats.