Democrats hope to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour—a more than 100 percent increase—by 2025, a move being fought by Republicans. This week on “The Nation Speaks,” we look at how a $15-an-hour minimum wage would play out in different parts of the country, and for different types of businesses and workers.
To help break that down, we speak with Rachel Greszler, an economist at The Heritage Foundation; Nebraska small business owner Kevin Barnhill; New York business magnate John Catsimatidis; and Jacob Vigdor, who studied what happened in Seattle after a large minimum wage hike there in 2016.
We also ask Americans across the country what they think about raising the minimum wage, in our favorite recurring feature, “America Q&A.”
Then, we look at Amazon’s business culture and why it just doesn’t jive with unions, according to Robin Gaster, who wrote the book on Amazon, “Behemoth, Amazon Rising.”
In our second “America Q&A,” we ask Americans what pandemic-related changes they think will be permanent.
Finally, we talk to two very special guests about the remarkable documentary, “The Prison Within.” Filmmaker Katherin Hervey and ex-felon and crime victim Troy Williams take us inside California’s infamous San Quentin maximum-security prison. There we learn about a program where felons and crime victims walk together on a powerful journey of mutual-healing.
