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The Minimum Wage In A Low-Wage Economy
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The November jobs report out today shows the jobless rate fell from 7.3 to 7 percent last month, the lowest it's been in five years, and 203,000 jobs were created — mainly in lower-wage sectors.
The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 an hour. About 13 percent of Americans are under-employed. If you work full time for a year earning minimum wage, you come away with about $15,000, which puts the worker below the poverty line for a two-person household.
What would change if wages for those jobs went up? Peter Cappelli, a professor of management at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, joins Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson to discuss the answer.
Guest
- Peter Cappelli, professor of management at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and director of the Wharton Center for Human Resources.
This segment aired on December 6, 2013.