The Washington Post, March 6, 2014, Thursday

The Washington Post 

March 6, 2014, Thursday 

Washington Post (full article)

The Inside Story of How the White House Learned to Love the Minimum Wage

“We wanted to ensure it was a moderate increase in the minimum wage so we didn’t spark any negative effects on employment,” explained Seth Harris, who was acting labor secretary at the time and participated in the discussions. “The challenge to balance is raising wages enough that you’re going to lift families out of poverty ... but not raise the wage so high that there’s a risk of meaningful employment effects.”

“One mom told me she only had enough money for her and her daughter to have one hamburger and one package of French fries, so the mom ate the bread and gave her daughter the burger and the fries,” said Harris, now a scholar at Cornell. “Those are choices that working people should not have to make.”