The Friday editorial, “A minimum wage that works” is misleading and inaccurate because it ignores the effect of the earned income tax credit.
Assuming the hypothetical family is a single mom with two children, the EITC for her would be about $5,100, giving her an income of $24,800 for a wage of $19,700. If she earned $12 per hour, her EITC would be about $3,900, giving her an income of $29,000. Either way she is above the poverty level.
The EITC doesn’t get much publicity, probably because it is supported across the political spectrum as an effective anti-poverty tool that also motivates people to work instead of collecting welfare. An artificially-high minimum wage is a blunt instrument that has unintended consequences, such as reducing job opportunities for entry-level workers and workers that are not capable of providing enough value to an employer to justify hiring those workers.
Jerry Fraser
Lynnwood
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