A new poll reveals that the majority of Americans understand that hiking the minimum wage is bad for workers, taxpayers, and the economy. As editor of Townhall Magazine editor Conn Carroll reports:
… a new poll of likely voters conducted for Townhall by Gravis Marketing … included a question, at the request of Townhall, that may provide Republicans a better way to answer Democratic questions about raising the minimum wage on the campaign trail.
Gravis asked, "Given the choice, would you rather see Congress: 1) raise the minimum wage, 2) cut the payroll tax for all working Americans, or 3) increase tax credits for some low-income Americans."
The results found a strong preference for cutting the payroll tax. "The majority of those polled; 50% believe that cutting the payroll tax for all working Americans would be a good start, 39% indicated that raising the minimum wage would be their choice, while only 9% believe increased entitlement spending by increasing tax credits for some low-income Americans would be smart. 2% were unsure," Gravis reported.
Payroll tax cuts benefit all working Americans and help create jobs. In contrast, writes Carroll:
Raising the minimum wage, however, would benefit only 4.3 percent of American workers, and, according to both the Congressional Budget Office and President Obama's choice to un the Federal Reserve, would kill hundreds of thousands of jobs.
So the clear message seems to be: cut taxes, don’t increase them through a minimum wage “unskilled labor tax.”