While the House of Representatives considers a bill that would raise the minimum wage by $1 over three years to $6.15 an hour, a Cornell economist asserts that the minimum wage is an outdated mechanism that does not help the working poor fight poverty.

Richard Burkhauser, the Sarah Gibson Blanding Professor of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell, who has been conducting research on the subject, says that most minimum wage workers are teenagers and others living in middle-class families far above the poverty line. He notes that 60 percent of minimum wage workers are not the primary earners in their households and that 16 percent live in single-person households, and thus more than 75 percent of minimum wage workers are not heads of poor families.

A prominent economist and policy scholar on the minimum wage, Burkhauser has testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on his views regarding minimum wage.

"Minimum wage policies should be abandoned and placed in the museum of antiquated policies," says Burkhauser. His most recent research finds that while the number of jobs lost because of minimum wage hikes is relatively small, the losses will fall disproportionately on vulnerable workers: teenagers, young blacks and high school dropouts.

"Instead of increasing the minimum wage, we should expand earned income tax credits, which more effectively target the working poor," says Burkhauser.

Burkhauser is available for interviews by calling (607) 255-2097. For his background papers on the minimum wage, call Susan Lang at (607) 255-3613.

Related World Wide Web sites:

• Department of Policy Analysis and Management: http://www.human.cornell.edu/pam.