Minimum Wage

The 'Living Wage' Attack on Jobs and Prosperity

Rep. Ro Khanna's minimum wage proposal promises prosperity but would likely price many low-skilled workers out of the labor market.

J.D. Tuccille | 6.8.2026 7:00 AM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Add Reason to Google

Media Contact & Reprint Requests

(Sue Dorfman/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom)

"Extractive capitalism" is a slippery concept that tends to mean whatever the speaker wants. Rep. Ro Khanna (D–Calif.) invokes the term as a bogeyman to be slain by the economic snake oil he peddles in the form of a $25 "living wage" bill he and other Democrats introduced. Fortunately, the legislation is not only unlikely to pass the current Congress; it's almost as slippery as Khanna's bogeymen. It's still a bad idea.

You are reading The Rattler from J.D. Tuccille and Reason. Get more of J.D.'s commentary on government overreach and threats to everyday liberty.

Facebook

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Email(Required)

SUBSCRIBE

Slippery Language and Moving Targets

"I co-introduced historic legislation to increase the minimum wage to $25," Khanna posted on X in April. "As someone who taught economics at Stanford, here is why it makes sense. The real minimum wage was $14 in 1968. Today it is half, but productivity has increased 2.5x. Instead of extractive capitalism, we need a free enterprise system that pays workers what they are worth."

Khanna's boast that he "taught economics at Stanford" does a lot of work here. He has a bachelor's degree in economics and had a visiting lecturer gig of the sort often awarded to political figures—in his case, after he served in the Obama administration and was preparing a congressional run.

Still, Khanna has some training in economics, which may explain why he talks about a $25 minimum wage, but the Living........

© Reason.com