Edmund Phelps Quotes

Raising the minimum wage does not take from growth, it adds to growth.

The most important social welfare program in America is a job.

Raising the minimum wage isn't just pro-worker; it's pro-economic growth.

Instead of focusing on this sort of defeatist mentality where we've gotta up the minimum wage, why don't we focus on creating better-paying jobs?

A minimum wage leads to higher levels of unemployment.

The question today is whether we should be creating millions of new jobs at present wages or fewer new jobs at better wages.

Obama's gonna play Santa Claus with the minimum wage. He's got no successes to brag about. He cannot talk about a robust job market. In fact, the very fact he's talking about the minimum wage is evidence there is no robust job market.

Minimum wage laws have never worked in terms of having the middle class attain more prosperity.

Statistical studies are all over the lot about the pluses and minuses of raising the minimum wage.

Today, there are more Americans working than ever before in the history of our Nation, and the average wage of those workers is higher than it has ever been in the history of our Nation.

The minimum wage now in our country, I think we've set that, so there are a lot of people have benefited from it in our country, but I think we ought to review how much it ought to be, and whether or not we ought to have increases in the minimum wage.

Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 will benefit about 28 million workers across the country. And it will help businesses, too - raising the wage will put more money in people's pockets, which they will pump back into the economy by spending it on goods and services in their communities.

I thought in this country, the best social program was a job. Yet minimum wage jobs aren't paying enough to keep families out of poverty.

This is the middle-class equivalent of raising the minimum wage.

If there are not sufficient jobs to go around then government must create jobs to give everyone an opportunity

I'm not sure there's another way to help move more people out of poverty than to raise the minimum wage.

Especially for the young and the lowest-skilled, minimum wage becomes a toll that prevents many from entering the work force and gaining the skills that can make a low income or middle class worker a high income worker. This is so obvious that one wonders why liberals keep championing the minimum wage cause.

The impact of a minimum wage depends on how high it is to average wages. If you have too high a minimum wage, it will hurt job creation, and you will have negative job effects.

Don't let anybody tell you that raising the minimum wage will kill jobs.

So what are the effects of increasing minimum wages? Any Econ 101 student can tell you the answer: The higher wage reduces the quantity of labor demanded, and hence leads to unemployment.

When you raise the price of employment, guess what happens? You get less of it. Why do we want to make it harder for small employers to hire people?

The value of the minimum wage shouldn't be eroded, and it has been.

Literally, if we took away the minimum wage - if conceivably it was gone - we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.

The national minimum wage has not been increased in 9 years. By year's end, 21 States across America will have a minimum wage exceeding the Federal minimum wage.

The gap between rich and poor under President Obama is getting bigger because fewer well-paying jobs are available. Corporations are being taxed to the hilt and are loathe to add more workers. Thus, salaries fall because there are more than enough applicants to fill any job vacancy.