How Minimum Wage Hike Advocates can Win the Argument: Raising Wages Lowers Welfare Spending

This argument might be able to get some Republicans on the side of a minimum wage hike.

But it turns out a lot of those people overlap: a majority of public benefits go to working families, a new analysis from two Berkeley economists finds. Their work shows that $152 billion in public programs like Medicaid and welfare — 56 percent of overall spending — goes toward supporting low-wage workers.

So if they tie a minimum wage hike to a reduction in Medicaid and welfare spending you might be able to get more conservatives on their side. There just needs to be a sweet spot where the minimum wage can actually reduce the need for these programs. That might be $10.10 an hour or whatever but the CBO needs to look into this.