We are all familiar with the standard textbook argument for why minimum wage is harmful to job creation. The standard view, which in political discourse has also come to be known as the conservative view, holds the minimum wage to be bad for all concerned. And yet, there is a conservative view to be made in favor of the minimum wage, and regular increases in the minimum wage, on the grounds that its neglected macroeconomic effects also would militate against another thing that conservatives hold to be equally as bad: redistribution. 

Oren M. Levin-Waldman is professor of public policy at the Metropolitan College of New York and the author of “ Wage
Policy, Income Distribution, and Democratic Theory .”

Over the past four decades, the United States has seen middle-class wages stagnate and income inequality rise. Increasing income inequality is a problem because it reflects the decline of the middle class and the disappearance of middle-class jobs. But it also threatens the survival of a democratic society.