How Congress can avoid the next minimum-wage showdown

Prospects dimmed over the weekend for Democrats who are hoping to find a way to give Americans who make less than $15 an hour a raise as part of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package, which the House passed on Saturday. Supporters of doubling the federal minimum wage from $7.25 argue it’ll lift a lot of people out of poverty. Critics say it’ll hurt struggling businesses and cost a lot of jobs. But according to economist Felix Koenig, both sides fail to understand the original purpose of the minimum wage, which FDR implemented in 1938 as part of his New Deal.

“The principal intention was not to provide a ‘living wage’ sufficient to live on alone,” he explains, but “to prevent the abuse of an employer’s inherent bargaining power over employees.”

And while Congress’ doubling the minimum wage will help that effort, the most important part of Biden’s plan would ensure lawmakers don’t need to legislate every new increase, Koenig writes.

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