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Should the Minimum Wage be Raised?

Arguments for and against raising the minimum wage are argued passionately by politicians and others. This panel at UC Berkeley shows that there is some movement toward consensus on the issue.

David Neumark, a labor economist and UC Irvine professor, sets the stage by looking at the data that show that the minimum wage has not kept up with inflation and contributes to the growing inequality problem. Ron Unz, a one-time California GOP gubernatorial hopeful, argues for a $12 an hour minimum wage which he contends would rightfully force private employers to cover the wages of their own workers rather than shifting the costs to the taxpayers in the form of government programs for those in poverty. And, Saru Jayaraman, director of the Food Labor Research Center, looks at the profitable and growing restaurant industry that proliferates the lowest paying jobs in the economy.

Watch Minimum Wage Policy in California and the U.S.: An Emerging Consensus Across Party Lines?, presented by The Goldman School of Public Policy’s Center on Civility and Democratic Engagement.

American Foreign Policy: Obama in the World

As President Obama has enacted his agenda, he has been both praised and condemned for his actions. He has governed during a turbulent era in American foreign policy from winding down of war in Iraq, the escalation of war in Afghanistan, the continued campaign against terrorism, the convulsions of the Arab Spring and Syria, the tensions of a frayed relationship with Russia, the disclosure of secret surveillance programs, and more.

The panel of experts from both sides of the aisle look at American foreign policy and the president’s record on issues of global importance. The panel: The Honorable Howard Berman, former Member of Congress and former Chairman, House Committee on Foreign Affairs; Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations; and Kori Schake, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

Watch Obama in the World: The President and Foreign Policy – Annual Review of the Presidency – 2014. The Annual Review of the Presidency has been an Institute of Governmental Studies tradition since 1981.