Steve Moore Demolishes the Argument for a Higher Minimum Wage in Under Two Minutes (VIDEO)
Alissa Tabirian /
The real minimum wage will be “zero” for individuals who lose their jobs as a result of the federal minimum wage increase, according to The Heritage Foundation’s Chief Economist Steve Moore.
“You know what the minimum wage is going to be for those people who lose their job? It’s going to be zero. Their wage is going to go from $7.50 to zero,” Moore said Thursday on CNN’s Crossfire.
Moore and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader joined CNN’s Van Jones and Newt Gingrich for the on-air debate, during which the panel argued about this week’s Congressional Budget Office report on the effects of increasing the federal minimum wage.
According to the CBO, a wage increase to $10.10 “would reduce total employment by about 500,000 workers” and could even put up to 1 million workers out of work.
Moore noted that raising the federal minimum wage would exacerbate America’s existing unemployment problem.
“The reason Americans aren’t getting a raise right now is because [there are] 20 million Americans that are unemployed,” he said.
Arguing that rampant unemployment is the nation’s most pressing issue, Moore pushed for a dialogue on job growth policies rather than minimum wage. “I don’t think the government should set prices and I don’t think it should set wages,” he said.