Both President Joe Biden and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf have proposed increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour by the year 2027.
Those who support hiking the minimum say it will help millions of low-paid workers and lift them out of poverty while opponents say it will result in a loss of jobs because employers won’t be able to afford to employ workers at higher wages.
Both sides can point to statistics to back up their arguments, which is one of the reasons raising the minimum wage is such a contentious issue.
The Congressional Budget Office recently released a report saying a $15 minimum would raise close to a million people out of poverty, but also kill 14 million jobs.
Dr. Arindrajit Dube, Ph.D., Professor, College of Social & Behavioral Sciences Department of Economics, Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst has researched the minimum wage through dozens of studies and is critical of the CBO report. He appears on Monday’s Smart Talk.
Immigrants assisting law enforcement in solving crimes could be deported due to backlog
Also on Monday’s show, the U-visa program, designed to provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who are the victims of crime but assist law enforcement, is significantly backed up. As a result, immigrants who may be eligible to become legal U.S. residents, could be deported while waiting for their cases to be heard.
A group of attorneys is pushing to speed up the U-visa program. Two of them — Whitney Phelps, Esq., Managing Attorney, Community Programs with the Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center and David Freedman, Esq., Barley Snyder Attorneys at Law — join us on Smart Talk.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS