Warren Buffett's preferred alternative to a big increase in the minimum wage, an adjustment to the earned-income tax credit, is the subject of my column this week:
The earned-income tax credit may indeed be better than a nationwide minimum wage increase to some level as high as $15, which is what Los Angeles City Council just passed. But — and here is the key point often omitted — the EITC has its own formidable problems, perverse incentives, and unintended consequences. Anyone — politicians, Warren Buffett, economists — recommending an expanded EITC as an alternative to a minimum wage increase would do well to keep those problems in mind, because tinkering with the details of the EITC has the potential to create plenty of trouble.
Read the whole column at the New York Sun (here) or Newsmax (here).