The effort by Obama and Senate Democrats to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour already faced opposition in the Republican-led House. Yesterday’s report from the Congressional Budget Office provided more fodder for Republicans who have been arguing the proposal would kill jobs.
“This is going to give some angst to Democrats,” said former Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat.
The report also showed that raising the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour may lift about 900,000 Americans out of poverty, supporting Democrats’ arguments in favor of the legislation.
Still, Republicans said the potential job losses outweighed those findings. Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, said the CBO report “confirms what we’ve long known.”