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from the consumers-with-more-money-to-spend dept.
NPR (formerly National Public Radio) reports:
By a 44-5 vote, Chicago's City Council set a minimum-wage target of $13 an hour, to be reached by the middle of 2019. The move comes after Illinois passed a nonbinding advisory last month that calls for the state to raise its minimum pay level to $10 by the start of next year.
The current minimum wage in Chicago and the rest of Illinois is $8.25. Under the ordinance, the city's minimum wage will rise to $10 by next July and go up in increments each summer thereafter.
[...]The bill states that "rising inflation has outpaced the growth in the minimum wage, leaving the true value of lllinois' current minimum wage of $8.25 per hour 32 percent below the 1968 level of $10.71 per hour (in 2013 dollars)."
It also says nearly a third of Chicago's workers, or some 410,000 people, currently make $13 an hour or less.
[...][In the 2014] midterm elections, voters in Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota approved binding referendums that raise their states' wage floor above the federal minimum.
Media Matters for America notes that The Chicago Tribune's coverage tried to trot out the *job-killer* dead horse once again, to which the response was
According to a March 2014 report(PDF) prepared for the Seattle Income Inequality Advisory Committee titled "Local Minimum Wage laws: Impacts on Workers, Families, and Businesses", city-wide minimum wage increases in multiple locations--Albuquerque, NM; Santa Fe, NM; San Francisco, CA; and Washington, DC--produced "no discernible negative effects on employment" and no measurable job shift from metropolitan to suburban areas.
Related:
Seattle Approves $15 Minimum Wage
Mayor's Minimum Wage Veto Overridden by San Diego City Council
States That Raised Their Minimum Wages Are Experiencing Faster Job Growth
(Score: 2) by Daiv on Tuesday December 09 2014, @01:02AM
I read a lot, actually. I've also listened to nearly every episode of Planet Money from its inception. When I listened to Giant Pool of Money, I didn't hear what you apparently heard. I heard that banks and such were packaging mortgage bundles and selling them and in 2005/2006 outside investors decided that with the interest rates of mortgages, they could make some predictable, dependable returns. A whole wave of money came in, banks started packing riskier and riskier loans, often paying off ratings companies to rate them higher to sell easier. Banks issued loans with no verification, appraisers were appraising homes for astronomical increases and banks asked no questions. Ultimately in 2008, some investors called in their chips, others got cold feet and called in the same. Banks didn't have the funds to pay them out, locked up all credit, caused untold chaos to businesses of all sizes.
All from the episode you are referring to. Did you listen or just read a little?