By Katie Davis O n the heels of recent protests by workers from the fast food, home care and child care industries demanding a nationwide increase of the minimum wage to $15-an-hour. The International Monetary Fund is downgrading its forecast for the US economy this year. The IMP supports what protesters are saying and recom- mends that the US should raise the minimum wage to help the poor and offer paid maternity leave to encour- age more women to work. In the IMF’s annual checkup of the US economy, it predicts 2.2 percent growth this year, down from 2.4 percent in 2015, and lower than the 2.4 percent growth that it fore- casted in April for the US economy.
IMF’s Managing Director, Christine Lagarde was quick to note that low unemployment and strong hiring over the past year shows that “the US economy is in good shape.” The US economy got off to a slow start this year as a strong dollar hurt exporters by making their goods costlier overseas, which is also a looming concern with the recent Brexit vote and investors back the US currency.
Reduced Energy sector spending has also dampened the US economy as spending is cut due to low oil prices.
The unfortunate part of an increased minimum wage results in increase cost to the consumer as companies are unable or unwilling to absorb these increased costs which in most cases puts you back at ground zero.
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JULY 2016 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS
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