Goizueta Business School’s Jeff Rosenweig, associate professor of finance and international business, was recently featured by 90.1 FM WABE, Atlanta’s NPR Station, to answer the question: “How Would Minimum Wage Increase Affect Georgia Economy?”
President Obama has proposed raising the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour to $9 an hour by 2015. Having a minimum wage of just $5.15 an hour, Georgia is said to be competitive for business and investment. Rosenweig, however, says this position won’t benefit Georgia in the long run.
“The only solution for Georgia really is to do what you see in places like Oregon and Washington and Massachusetts, which is raise the productivity of our workers, so that firms are more than willing to invest here and hire our workers, even at a higher minimum wage…As trite as it sounds, it all comes down to our education system and our training,” he says.
Rosenweig also serves as director of Goizueta’s Global Perspectives Program. Prior to joining Emory in January 1988, he was Senior International Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
Click here to read the full article and hear the broadcast version of this story.
-Meredith Farahmand