From the OC Register:
Moves to increase minimum wages are back at all levels of government, though doing so would hurt most the low-income workers they’re designed to help. In Ohio, the minimum wage increases 15 cents to $7.85 starting today, one of 10 states to increase its minimum wage. At the federal level, an aide to Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, told the Orange County Register that Harkin will re-introduce legislation in January to boost the minimum wage that in 2012 didn’t get out of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which he chaired. A similar bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. George Mille, D-Calif. The legislation, which could be modified, would boost the federal minimum wage to $9.80 per hour in 2014 from $7.25 today, a 35 percent increase. And it would tie the minimum wage to inflation. “It’s the law of supply and demand: when production input gets more expensive, businesses substitute other things,” David Neumark told the Orange County Register; he’s the director of University of California Irvine’s Center for Economics and Public Policy and co-author of a recent book, “Minimum Wages.”

For the full story, please visit http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/minimum-381754-wage-jobs.html.