CBO: Obama's Minimum Wage Hike Would Cost A Half Million Jobs

President Barack Obama and Democrats have been pushing a minimum wage hike. Obama, specifically, has gone so far as to hike the minimum wage for federal contractors by way of an executive order.

Opponents of the minimum wage (including this one) argue that hiking the wage costs jobs by inflating the price of low-wage workers. And, according to a Congressional Budget Office report out today, the critics of a minimum wage hike are right.

“Once fully implemented in the second half of 2016, the $10.10 option would reduce total employment by about 500,000 workers, or 0.3 percent,” reads the report.

A hike to $9.00/hour would have a similar, though less sever, impact. “The $9.00 option would reduce employment by about 100,000 workers, or by less than 0.1 percent, CBO projects,” reads the report.

Here’s a graphic:

The report also states that “many more” workers would get raises than lose their jobs – the CBO is estimating that the a hike to $10.10/hour would impact 16.5 million workers in total, but you have to ask yourself what’s better? More people working at a lower wage? Or fewer people working at a higher one?

But hey, aren’t Democrats selling the idea that losing your job is a good thing? Obamacare is liberating millions of people from “job lock.” A minimum wage hike would maybe liberate several hundred thousand more.