Douglas Alexander: “So the student who suggested the minimum wage came up with a pretty expensive idea, an $11 billion price tag, or $18…”

“So the student who suggested the minimum wage came up with a pretty expensive idea, an $11 billion price tag, or $18 billion, according to another study. But those estimates are about raising the cost of everyone's wages to $7.25 an hour. That is not how it works, because many workers are already paid a certain amount above the minimum wage and they will continue to earn more than the new minimum wage. So in effect, we are also legislating that a number of workers will receive a wage higher than $7.25, which means the cost is much higher than $11 billion or $18 billion. That is a lot of money. That is the first critique of the student's answer. The second one: How well does this money hit the mark? We heard Senator Kennedy say repeatedly: Those on the lowest rung of the economic ladder. We have visions of women and children who are poor, particularly single mothers. Senator Kennedy has great passion for this issue. I have heard him many times over the last 4 years talking about how this is a women's issue; this is a children's issue; this is an issue for Americans on the lowest rung of the ladder who are in poverty. Well, let's see if that is true. The studies show it is not true. Raising the minimum wage doesn't efficiently target the poor. Only one in five minimum wage workers live in households at or below the poverty line. So most of that $11 billion or $18 billion won't be going to the people who need it the most.”