Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) — Seven recipients of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences were among 75 economists endorsing an increase in the minimum wage for U.S. workers.
In a letter released today, the group called for the hourly minimum wage to reach $10.10 by 2016 from its current $7.25, and then be indexed for inflation thereafter. They said "the weight" of economic research shows higher pay doesn't lead to fewer jobs.
Past increases in hourly pay have had "little or no negative effect on the employment of minimum wage workers, even during times of weakness in the labor market," the economists wrote. "A minimum wage increase could have a small stimulative effect on the economy as low-wage workers spend their additional earnings."
Nobel Prize winners Kenneth Arrow, Peter Diamond, Eric Maskin, Thomas Schelling, Robert Solow, Michael Spence and Joseph Stiglitz were among signatories of the letter, which was released by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington research group funded in part by labor unions.
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