CBO Estimates Minimum Wage Hike Would Cost Private Sector $15 Billion; Networks Silent
The network evening news casts have yet to report an estimate by the
Congressional Budget Office that President Obama's proposal to hike the
minimum wage would cost the private sector $15 billion and raise the
deficit.
The CBO report came out on Wednesday, but as of Friday evening the networks have ignored it. As the Washington Free Beacon pointed out,
the CBO says that Obama's minimum wage would raise the deficit by $5
billion over 10 years and cost private employers $15 billion.
When
the CBO estimated in February that the wage proposal could cost 500,000
jobs, CBS was the only network to report it on the evening news casts.
Two days after the more recent estimate, all the networks have been
silent.
"[I]n fiscal year 2017, when the federal minimum wage would be $10.10 per hour
under the legislation, state, local, and tribal employers would be required to pay their covered
workers
an estimated $1 billion more in wages than they would pay under current
law," the CBO stated. They added that "private employers would be
required to pay their covered workers an estimated $15 billion more in
wages than they would pay under current law."
— Matt Hadro is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Matt Hadro on Twitter.
