The Fight for $15: Raising America’s Minimum Wage

More than half of the US is now covered by a $15 minimum wage law, and inequality has fallen in the last decade for the first time in a generation. The movement that triggered the wage increase began in 2012 when 200 fast-food workers walked off the job in New York City, a move many observers dismissed as unrealistic at the time.

Join us as we discuss the movement that The New York Times wrote went from “laughable to viable,” winning over many skeptical economists in the process and leading to salary increases of $200 billion for 30 million workers. This panel will examine the economics of wage-setting, the successes and failures of the US labor movement, and crucial lessons learned from the experience of minimum wage policies in the US and around the world.

Speakers:
Sohrab Ahmari, US Editor of UnHerd and author of Tyranny, Inc.
Kate Bell, Assistant General Secretary to the Trades Union Congress
Arindrajit Dube, Provost Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Mary Kay Henry, Former International President of the Service Employees International Union, IGP Carnegie Distinguished Fellow
Suresh Naidu, IGP Faculty Advisory Board Member, Professor of International and Public Affairs, Center for Political Economy Co-director, and Jack Wang and Echo Ren Professor of Economics at Columbia SIPA