New EPI Ad Campaign Highlights Consequences of $10.10 Wage Hike Ahead of Senate Vote
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Publication Date: April 2014
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Topics: Minimum Wage
Washington, D.C. – Today the Employment Policies Institute unveiled a new ad campaign consisting of television and radio commercials and a mobile billboard in Washington, D.C. The campaign highlights the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) report which estimates up to a million jobs could disappear if the federal minimum wage is raised to $10.10 per hour. The campaign comes as the Senate prepares to vote on the wage hike tomorrow.
View the television commercial here, listen to the radio ad here, and view the mobile billboard here.
The new television commercial features a fortune teller advising an actor portraying President Obama that according to the CBO report’s findings, the President’s plan to raise wages will result in up to a million people losing their jobs. The voiceover at the end of the spot remarks: “It doesn’t take a fortune teller to know what happens when you raise the minimum wage.” The ad is running on Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, and NBC Washington.
EPI’s radio commercial, airing on WTOP-FM, features a voiceover of a woman arguing that a wage increase to $10.10 would actually hit women the hardest, noting that nearly 60 percent of the half-million lost jobs estimated by the CBO will be held by women.
In addition to the new ads, EPI also has a mobile billboard that is traveling between the White House and the Capitol on Pennsylvania Ave this week. The billboard reads, “Caution! Lost Jobs Ahead” and continues, “Nonpartisan government economists estimate up to 1 million jobs will be lost if the minimum wage is hiked to $10.10. Tell Big Labor to hit the road.”
“The Congressional Budget Office has confirmed what economists have been saying for decades: Wage hikes cost jobs,” said Michael Saltsman, EPI’s research director. “Instead of creating more barriers to entry-level employment, Congress should instead focus on policies such as the Earned Income Tax Credit that can actually help those most in need.”