Michael R. Strain, Columnist

A $15 Minimum Wage Would Wreck U.S. Economic Recovery

Biden and Trump expressed support for the idea, to one degree or another. Let’s hope neither of them is serious.

October 23, 2020 at 2:39 PM EDT

Michael R. Strain is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is director of economic policy studies and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It).”

We need more essential workers, not fewer.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

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In Thursday night’s debate, both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden expressed openness to a $15-per-hour national minimum wage. Biden seems all for it, and Trump indicated it may be a good idea for some states.

They both know that raising the wage level is a popular idea among Republicans as well as Democrats, if polls are to be believed. But a wage floor at $15 would set the recovery back by reducing employment.

Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal

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