A weekly presentation of downloadable charts and short analyses designed to graphically illustrate important economic issues. Updated every Wednesday.

Snapshot for February 9, 2000

The impact of failing to raise the minimum wage

This chart plots the current path of the minimum wage versus what would have occurred had Congress supported last year’s legislation to increase the wage floor by $1.00 over two years ($0.50 in both January 1999 and 2000). By 2000, using Congressional Budget Office inflation projections, the inflation-adjusted difference in the actual versus the projected minimum wage (simulating the proposed increase) amounts to $0.98 in the year 2000. For a full-time, full-year worker this means a loss of about $2,000 annually.

Source: EPI analysis of CBO data.

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