Hi, I'm Dampromack, and welcome to Axios Recap, brought to you by Morgan Stanley.

Today is Thursday, February 11th. Weekly jobless claims are down. The price of Bitcoin keeps going up,

and we're focused on the fight for 15. The federal minimum wage is one of the few economic policy issues on which it seems everyone

has an opinion.

Breaking it down along party lines, Democrats say it's too low, having sat at 725 per hour since

2009.

Republicans mostly think it's fine where it is, and that any increases should come at the

state or local levels. Democrats also want to see it increased to $15 per hour as part of the next

round of pandemic stimulus, the stuff getting negotiated right now, arguing it's desperately

needed help for America's most economically vulnerable. Republicans, though, are opposed, saying the increase would hurt many of the very small

businesses that have been hammered by lockdowns.

Oh, and then there are those in the middle.

Axios recently convened a pair of focus groups, voters who swung from Trump in 2016 to Biden in 2020.

13 of the 14 participants said $15 per hour was too high, but also felt that $7.25 was too

low.

They favored something in the $9 to $12 range.

Now, for context, a worker making the federal minimum wage right now, working 40 hours per week

with no time off for vacation, would make

just around $15,000 a year. That compares to a federal poverty line just shy of $13,000 per

year. So the federal minimum wage is higher, but just barely. And that's only if you're

a single person without children or other dependents. It's also worth noting that 725 figure, it's applicable in 18 states.

The rest all have higher minimum wages, but none up to 15.

...