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One of things I've been thinking about lately is the heated minimum wage debate. Should we raise it or should we not? And one of the things I noticed when looking into this further is that although raising the minimum wage would definitely increase the incomes of lower wage workers, it would also create some unintended consequences such as putting smaller businesses who can't afford to pay the higher wages out of business, an increase in unemployment, and inflation.

Thinking so then what's the solution, I decided to research a little bit. And one policy tool I came across that has not been mentioned by anyone I talk to is Earned Income Tax Credit. For the tax year of 2018, if you're a single with zero children that made less than $15,270 (in adjusted gross income), you're eligible for up to $519 in tax credit.

Well, what if instead of constantly raising the minimum wage, we instead looked into expanding Earned Income Tax Credit so that more lower wage workers can keep more of their income? I mean as someone who's more politically left leaning, it would definitely make sense to me for two reasons:

  1. It would reduce the amount of taxes on the poor.
  2. It would allow for the current minimum wage we have to become a more livable wage.

More on EITC here: https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/earned-income-tax-credit/eitc-income-limits-maximum-credit-amounts

One of things I've been thinking about lately is the heated minimum wage debate. Should we raise it or should we not? And one of the things I noticed when looking into this further is that although raising the minimum wage would definitely increase the incomes of lower wage workers, it would also create some unintended consequences such as putting smaller businesses who can't afford to pay the higher wages out of business, an increase in unemployment, and inflation. Thinking so then what's the solution, I decided to research a little bit. And one policy tool I came across that has not been mentioned by anyone I talk to is Earned Income Tax Credit. For the tax year of 2018, if you're a single with zero children that made less than $15,270 (in adjusted gross income), you're eligible for up to $519 in tax credit. Well, what if instead of constantly raising the minimum wage, we instead looked into expanding Earned Income Tax Credit so that more lower wage workers can keep more of their income? I mean as someone who's more politically left leaning, it would definitely make sense to me for two reasons: 1. It would reduce the amount of taxes on the poor. 2. It would allow for the current minimum wage we have to become a more livable wage. More on EITC here: https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/earned-income-tax-credit/eitc-income-limits-maximum-credit-amounts

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[–] • 2 pts

Well you know I found an interesting thing about the minimum wage a year or two ago, in places where you have a lot of people the average wage seems to decrease, where as in places with few people such as rural Illinois there is almost no one actually making minimum wage. I don't think the problem of wages can be solved by government by just defining a number whether that is by the IRS or congress I think that at the end of the day we have a problem of people not money, we need companies to have to compete for workers thats the only way wages will go up.