Democrats shouldn't raise the minimum wage

As the New York Times reported this week, "wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation's gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960's." I'm going to have a few posts about this during the next week.

Let's start with the minimum wage -- a hugely important measure for less educated workers.

There's been a lot of talk on the left about what Democrats should do if they win the House (although one Congressional staffer I spoke with was confident they'd manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and said: "we're not measuring for new drapes yet"), and high up on that list is raising the minimum.

After all, it's remained the same --$5.15 and hour -- since 1997 and is now at its lowest point in terms of buying power since 1955. If you work full-time at the federal minimum (21 states have higher minimum wages), you earn $10,712 per year -- try lifting yourself up by those boot-straps.

But I worry that Dems will do just that: bring a bill to the floor with a one-time hike as Congress has done from time to time since 1938. Maybe they'll target a higher number than the Republicans' recent bill upping it to $6.25 (which was attached to all kinds of giveaways for the super-wealthy).