evidence: MOST AMERICANS share President Joe Biden’s enthusiasm for increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour from $7.25. Two-thirds of them—and more than 40% of Republicans—favour such a rise, according to Pew Research Centre, a polling firm. Economists, however, are more divided. When a panel of eminent scholars was asked in 2015 whether a $15 minimum would deal a substantial blow to employment, 40% of respondents were undecided, and the rest were split evenly for and against. There is an explanation for the indecision: the world has little experience of large minimum-wage rises, and they could cost an economy jobs. Yet history also suggests that such increases, implemented with care, may nonetheless have beneficial longer-term effects.