The Los Angeles City Council is preparing for a final vote to approve raising the minimum wage in that city to $15 per hour by 2020 despite opposition from some business leaders.Quote:“A higher minimum wage is certainly needed in a city as expensive as Los Angeles," said Duke public policy professor Robert Korstad. "But as more and more economists and business leaders are beginning to realize, higher wages, whether from a minimum wage increase or collective bargaining agreements, are a key to economic growth and the prosperity of the whole community.”“People -- at least those at the bottom of the economic ladder -- who make more money, spend more money. That helps the shops where people buy their necessities, and as those dollars move around and trickle up more and more people benefit from the raise in the minimum wage. Let’s hope the L.A. City Council supports the message and helps right some of the wrongs of a low-wage economy.”• Bio: Robert Korstad, a professor in the Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy and co-director of the university’s Research Network on Racial and Gender Inequality, focuses on poverty research and contemporary social policy. His publications include “To Right These Wrongs: The North Carolina Fund and the Battle to End Poverty and Inequality in 1960s America.”http://sanford.duke.edu/people/faculty/korstad-robert• For additional comment, contact Robert Korstad at: rkorstad@duke.edu
