columnist with the american enterprise institute. and a labor economist. let me start with you on that question. we played the clips of the candidates who are opposing it. let s take a look at los angeles. if you re a business owner and you are being told the going rate is $15 and not $9. that s a significant jump. why don t you think the business owner is going to employ fewer people. because of economic research over 45 years. first of all the minimum wage will be that high in 2020. by that time inflation will have gone up. workers rages would have gone up. businesses might have learned if they don t pay more that they have just higher turnover. as businesses experiment with a higher wage economic research shows that they re going to get more loyal workers. probably tighten up the productivity of all their operations. a lot of those businesses aren t
assistant attorneys make. men in that job make a little more than $79,000. women with the same role make about $6,000 less. in 2012 equal pay for equal work was a galvanizing issue for president obama. and as wendy davis continues to wage an uphill battle against greg abbott, will the issue of equal pay help to win over texas voters? and how long will it take for the gop to come up with anything approaching a coherent position on pay discrimination? here to help answer those questions are huffington post reporter laura bassett, senior vice president at the liberal think tank center for american progress, jess mcintosh at the democratic women s pac, emily list, and labor economist at the new school. ladies, thank you so much for joining us. i know you all are very busy. extremely. i m really glad you could make it. it s an amazing panel made greater that five out of the three of us went to uva.
you could argue that a labor economist coming in when we have to figure out how to unwind the most unconventional monetary policy in history without damaging a fragile recovery she has her hands full. any branding expert probably would never ever, steve rattner, predicted that your brand would be charts and it would sell but it does. everyone talks to me about your charts. i think some might have predicted it might have been my i m not a late night comedian so that leaves me with charts. but the fact that they would sell is a different matter. it s amazing. you also take a look at afghanistan. is the end in sight? is the answer no because it s always no. depends on what you mean by the end. end of our involvement as we bring troops home by the end of this year yes. but how many troops remain and their volley an open question. we ve seen what has happened before when you have a major shift in afghanistan and disaster follows so i think
issue featuring what it calls a user guide for 2014. cnn s global economic analyst and assisting editor for time. nice to see you. nice to see you. people just simply fascinate us all. you say really topping the list is janet yellin, who just, indeed, may be one of the most powerful people. why? well, she s the incoming or very soon to be the incoming chair of the federal reserve. and her big task for this year is going to be addressing the ongoing unemployment problem in this country. you know, we are several years into a recovery now. unemployment is still historically high. she has really committed to this she s a labor economist. she is someone who has stressed again and again someone who understands the human costs. we re not just talking about dry figures here. if you think about unemployment
you, with kind of some of the history picking up on what we were just saying about the way unions used to be so strong in this country and really have a voice and be able to protect workers. as they kline declined, we have wages fall. how important is the decline of unions to the story of low wages? well, as a labor economist, i know that wage contours, wage levels are set and the economy, they re also set in politics and the law and legislation. so the lack of protection for unido u unions is instrumental in making the united states number one. sometimes it is not good to be number one. we are number one in the world in creating low wage jobs. one out of four workers in the united states is a low wage worker. meaning that they make 45% of the median wage, which is now $18,000 per year. so a quarter of our workers make $18,000 per year.