Good article in the New York Times magazine this week:

What is a Living Wage?

Excellent overview of the topic in the United States, with a particularly good section outlining the importance of Card and Krueger's Myth and measurement: The New Economics of the Minimum Wage. As an economics student, the potential backfiring effects of a minimum wage increase are pounded into your head (mandated higher wages reduces the demand for minimum-wage workers, hurting those that such laws are meant to help).

But empirical econometric data from Card and Krueger have stirred interest in the topic among economists--apparently, such laws don't have a significant impact on unemployment. What was once presented as a truism in introductory economics textbooks is now, itself, crumbling. There are now--get this--economists supporting an increase in the minimum wage.

Earned income tax credits are also cool. It's really sad that 15-25% go uncollected.