CBO: $10.10 An Hour Will Lift 900,000 Out Of Poverty

The Congressional Budget Office released an initial report on the $10.10 an hour unemployment projects.  The initial estimates claim that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour will boost the unemployment numbers by 500,000 people. Of course that sounds terrible until you dig further into the report. While 500,000 people can expect to lose their jobs the wage increase will affect roughly 16.5 million people boosting 900,000 people out of poverty. Real income would increase, on net, by $5 billion for families whose income will be below the poverty threshold under current law. This will boost family income by about 3 percent.  Not to mention the benefits of reducing the social service rolls. Read more about that here. 

So before everyone freaks out about the increase in unemployment this becomes a simple cost benefit analysis. The boost in wages will result in additional income for the people who need it most. Most importantly the people who will spend it. Lifting 900,000 people out of poverty will also give a kick to the economy as well. So don't believe the doom and gloom, $10.10 is going to benefit us in the long run.

Of course the best argument to make is this...

The avg. age of those who would benefit from a #MWRaise is 35. These are people w/ bills to pay & mouths to feed. #RaiseTheWage
— Tom Perez (@LaborSec) February 18, 2014