A while back, I wrote about the proposal by the progressive caucus of Chicago aldermen to hike the minimum wage to $15 an hour; Emmanuel countered that with his own proposal (via a “task force”) to raise the wage to $13 an hour in dollar-per-year increments, but said he wanted to defer action to see if the Democrats pushed anything through at the state level first. (So far, this is all talk even though the Democrats hold the State House and Senate and the governor is a Democrat.)
There was even a piece in the paper in which the reporter interviewed people in a “man on the street” sort of way recently (I thought I blogged about this. . . ) and everyone pretty much said, “sure, I support it — just as long as employers don’t cut jobs or raise prices as a result.”
Now the Tribune has taken this a step further (sorry, paywalled link), with a poll of Chicago residents: “Do you support or oppose increasing the minimum wage from $8.25 per hour to $13 per hour over the next three years?” The results? 84% support, 13% oppose, and 2% don’t know/no opinion.
As usual in this sort of article, the Tribune asked some “men on the street”: one said it would help, and two said an increase would hurt, with fewer jobs and higher prices doing more harm than good.
In the end, I’m just astonished at these poll numbers. Was there more framing, more context, that made people feel that they needed to say “yes” in order to be properly compassionate for the poor, because the answer choice of, “I’d love to, but I think there could be unintended consequences that could make people worse off” wasn’t there?
The article doesn’t provide full details but does provide some data breakdowns:
Opposition was greatest among white voters and those making more than $100,000, but overall strong majorities in both groups supported the wage hike. The poll found 78 percent of white voters and 71 percent of voters in wealthier households backed the idea.
What do you make of this?
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