The minimum was first set at 25 cents an hour in 1938.
Many economists worry about two pernicious effects of raising the minimum.
The first concerns job loss. Standard theory holds that every hike in the wage triggers employee firings, with the least skilled axed first. That view has been challenged by several recent studies co-authored by Alan Krueger, the Labor Department's chief economist. Negligible, though, is a term of art. They pass them on in the form of higher prices, which are regressive because they're borne equally by all.