Lift some above "poverty line" but others lose their jobs...

The just-released and widely quoted Congressional Budget Office evaluation of the economic effects of the Biden administration's push to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 contains good news for some and bad news for other Americans. As much as 10% of the national workforce would have pay increases, including 900,000 lifted above the so-called "poverty line". However, 1.4 million other members of the national workforce would lose their jobs due to higher labor costs, an effect which virtually all other studies of proposed minimum wage increases have noted. Also, the National Debt would rise by as much as $54 billion due to increased federal spending on such programs as Social Security, unemployment and health care benefits. The minimum wage increase proposal presents complex policy choices, not a simple benefit plan.