EPI ON THE MINIMUM WAGE
On Nov. 7, voters in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and Ohio will decide whether to approve ballot initiatives to raise the state's minimum wage and tie future increases to a cost-of-living index. Meanwhile, these voters are hearing claims that raising the minimum wage will destroy thousands of jobs. Four new Economic Policy Institute releases show how many workers in these six states would benefit from a minimum wage increase, and what the real job impact of past increases have been nationwide.

First, in a joint statement issued on Wednesday, October 11, five Nobel Prize winners and over 650 other economists endorsed a statement urging a raise in the minimum wage. The statement asserts that a modest raise in the minimum wage (in the range of a $1.00 to $2.50 per hour), with future increases indexed to protect the workers' purchasing power, "can significantly improve the lives of low-income workers and their families, without the adverse effects that critics have claimed." 

Second, Securing the Wage Floor—a new analysis by EPI's EARN Director Michael Ettlinger—examines the effect and various approaches to indexing and counters the arguments most commonly made against it. 

Next, in an EPI Snapshot, economic analyst Liana Fox examines the six states with ballot initiatives and finds that, if all of these measures pass, then more than 1.5 million workers would receive raises, with 652,000 children of these workers directly benefiting. Counting the 22 states plus the District of Columbia that already have minimum wages above the federal rate, 70% of the U.S. workforce will live in a state with a higher-than-federal level if voters approve all the proposals.

Finally, EPI's new Briefing Paper, Minimum Wage Trends—Understanding Past and Contemporary Research, also by Fox, examines the methods and findings of the major research that has been done on the effects of minimum wage raises. Where it was once accepted almost unquestioningly that raising the minimum wage was bad for jobs, better methods and the data derived from more recent experience have led many experts to conclude that any negative effects of a minimum wage raise are negligible and outweighed by the benefits to the workers affected.

DEBATING THE MIDDLE CLASS
Just how is the middle class faring in the modern American economy, and how should progressives tailor their message and program accordingly? The American Prospect Online is hosting an ongoing exchange about the economic state of the middle class and the proper political appeal to reach middle-income Americans. EPI President Lawrence Mishel kicks things off with opening articles, and Stephen Rose, Jeff Madrick, Jacob Hacker, and others have all contributed responses to this continuously updated debate.

The mission of the Economic Policy Institute is to provide high-quality research and education in order to promote a prosperous, fair, and sustainable economy. The Institute stresses real world analysis and a concern for the living standards of working people, and it makes its findings accessible to the general public, the media, and policy makers.