Kill the filibuster

That raising the minimum wage would not pass muster in the budget reconciliation process is not unexpected. I'm not sure $15 is the right minimum wage for a low-wage state like Arkansas or Mississippi, but given the tradeoffs I'd say let's give it a try. Not gonna happen.

Minimum wage and poverty reduction

Raising the legal minimum wage involves tradeoffs, but my reading of the evidence and analysis is that there will be more gains than losses for low-income workers and their families under most of the proposed increases. The logic of setting different state and local minimums is nicely argued by Arindrajit Dube here. Still, it's worth remembering that raising the minimum wage is not a very well-targeted policy for poverty reduction, compared with, say, increased generosity of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). David Neumark makes the point here. As he notes, the two policies can be complementary, so progressives should push for more on both fronts.

EPI top ten charts of 2015

You can find them here. Several are similar to last year's contenders. They acknowledge that the unemployment rate is looking a lot better, but the emphasis is on the (still) bad news: slow wage growth, and inequality. To me this one (#9) is the most interesting. Don't forget to send them some money...