Word: minimum
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Contrary to popular belief, about 80% of those who get the minimum (or less) belong to families with combined incomes above the poverty line (currently $15,627 for a family of four) and thus are not defined as poor...
About 2.5 million Americans earn the minimum; 1.7 million more take home even less since the law doesn't cover them...
...minimum was first set at 25c an hour in 1938. Inflation has taken a heavy toll: since it was last raised from $3.35 in 1991, its value has fallen...
Many economists worry about two pernicious effects of raising the minimum. The first concerns job loss. Standard theory holds that every hike in the wage triggers employee firings, with the least skilled axed first. That view has been challenged by several recent studies co-authored by Alan Krueger, the Labor Department's chief economist. A modest increase, says Krueger, would have ``negligible negative employment effects''--or, in plain English, next to no job losses. Negligible, though, is a term of art. Because wage- related costs like unemployment compensation and payroll taxes rise along with the basic wage, most experts...
Since many Republicans oppose hiking the minimum with near religious zeal (``I'll fight it with every fiber of my being,'' says House majority leader Dick Armey), the President's plan seems dead--which may explain why some Clinton aides say the proposal won't be actively pushed...