The Economic Power of and Popular Support for Raising the Minimum Wage

The public overwhelmingly supports raising the minimum wage and that support is reinforced in the current weak recovery. The public intuitively understands the minimum wage and consistently strongly approves of efforts to raise it by large margins. That support is noticeably deep and broad; in an era where many issues are highly polarized and vigorously debated by different demographic and partisan contingents, raising the minimum wage stands out as one of the most broadly embraced economic policies, with high levels of support across all partisan and demographic groups, bridging the gaps of age, race, education, and income.