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The Democratic leadership has announced plans to pass an increase in the federal minimum wage soon after their party takes over Congress in January. The current rate of $5.15 per hour has not been raised since 1997. Some argue that an increase in the minimum wage is long overdue to help America’s poorest workers. However, others argue that raising the minimum wage does more harm than good, resulting in less hiring and scaled-back hours for low-wage workers.

What effect does the minimum wage have on employment? To answer this question, David Neumark of the University of California at Irvine will present his comprehensive review of the “new minimum wage research” from the past fifteen years. Jared Bernstein from the Economic Policy Institute and Harry Holzer of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute will discuss Dr. Neumark’s review.