MacroScope

Bucking the usual tune of private sector lobbyists, a group called Business for a Fair Minimum Wage is calling for a hike in the minimum wage, saying it would boost business and the economy.

Business for a Fair Minimum Wage is a project of Business for Shared Prosperity, which describes itself as a national network of “forward thinking” business owners and executives.

The last step of a three-step federal minimum wage increase went into effect on July 24, 2009. The $7.25 an hour current minimum wage comes to just $15,080 a year for full-time work, below the poverty line.

Said the business group in support of a wage hike:

That hourly wage gives today’s minimum wage workers far less buying power than their counterparts did in 1968 when the minimum wage was at its highest value of $10.55 adjusted for inflation.

Proposals currently exist in Congress to raise the minimum wage to $9.80 by 2014 in three modest annual steps and then adjust it for the cost of living. According to Lew Prince, managing partner of Vintage Vinyl in St. Louis, Missouri:

No wonder most Americans feel like the recession never ended. A new paper from Emmanuel Saez, a Berkeley professor and expert on inequality, shows the overwhelming majority of income gains – 93 percent – accrued in 2010, the first full year of the U.S. recovery, went to the top 1 percent richest Americans. (Thanks to our friends at Counterparties for bringing the paper to our attention.)

The research suggests economic growth, even if it gathers speed, will not be nearly sufficient to close the income gap that has been the target of national Occupy protests. Instead, only drastic tax reforms of the sort seen during the 1930s might do the trick.

In 2010, average real income per family grew by 2.3% but the gains were very uneven. Top 1% incomes grew by 11.6% while bottom 99% incomes grew only by 0.2%. Hence, the top 1% captured 93% of the income gains in the first year of recovery. Such an uneven recovery can help explain the recent public demonstrations against inequality. It is likely that this uneven recovery has continued in 2011 as the stock market has continued to recover.