Show-Me Minute: Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)

We have talked before about why raising the minimum wage is a bad idea. Because it hurts the very people it’s supposed to help. Business owners in Seattle reacted to the city’s new $13 an hour minimum wage by cutting hours for low wage workers. Overall income for those workers dropped $100 million!

So if raising the minimum wage isn’t a good idea, what is?

How about expanding the earned income tax credit? That’s a refundable tax credit for low-to-moderate income workers.

That means they would get to keep more of the money they earn to help make ends meet.

It will also slow the growth of public welfare spending because it encourages and rewards work.

And employers wouldn’t be forced into reducing hours or hiring fewer low wage workers.

Unlike raising the minimum wage, expanding the earned income tax credit would help the very people it’s supposed to.

Check out our 2017 Missouri Blueprint: Moving Missouri Forward at showmeinstitute.org. This Show-Me Minute has been brought to you by Show-Me Institute and Show-Me Opportunity.

Broadcast on:

10 Aug 2017