 It is long past time. We have a $15 federal minimum wage. A minimum wage that is a living wage, winning that fight for 15. That's one of many reasons we need to raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour. We have got to raise that minimum wage to $15 an hour. Alright, the fight for 15 has become a major talking point for the 2020 Democrats. But now, one of its most vocal supporters, Senator Bernie Sanders, has found himself in a compensation controversy. Yeah, what happened with his campaign proved that a $15 federal minimum wage could be an economic disaster. Here to discuss that from the stock swoosh is Melissa Armo. Thanks for coming on this morning. So he's implementing this with his campaign staffers and that means he's got to cut back hours. Now, the Congressional Budget Office did a report on what would happen if you implement that in the whole country. And let's take a look at that right off the bat, because it shows that on average they think it could cost about 1.3 million American jobs. So has what happened with Bernie Sanders' campaign kind of foreshadowing this result? Definitely. And it's indicative to what would happen to businesses. Remember, if you increase the cost of your payroll, that's usually the largest expense for a business unless you own real estate. The money's got to come from somewhere. It's just not going to drop out of the sky. Businesses, if they have to pay more, are either going to cut back their hours just like what's happening with Bernie Sanders' staffers, or they're going to have to increase the cost of whatever they're selling. The money has to come from somewhere. But to the point of the people saying that the minimum wage has to be increased, no one who can live on $15 an hour. Even if we increase it to that, that's $300 a week. You could not survive in New York City on $300 a week. And to be honest with you, I don't think anyone can, let alone if you had a family, even if you were single. The idea of the minimum wage is a starter job. Graduate college, or you graduate high school, it's a starter position. It's not supposed to be something that you live on for the rest of your life. It really isn't even a living wage at $15 an hour. Let's take a look at this quote from Bernie Sanders defending the staff compensation. And it says, quote, field organizers make $36,000 a year with 100% employer-paid healthcare as well as paid vacation and sick leave. For a staffer working 40 hours a week, that comes out to about $17 an hour. But 40-hour work weeks on presidential campaigns are rare. Sanders said the campaign will limit the number of hours, staffers work, ensuring they're making the equivalent of $15 an hour. Melissa, is this going to be the thing that we look back and say a year from now, say this is the thing that came back to bite him? I just don't think it's a good idea the way it's coming about. Maybe he had a good philosophy. Again, a lot of these Democrats have great ideas, but where's the money gonna come from? Somebody has to pay for it. And clearly his campaign can't even support paying for it. So how is it gonna be that businesses can, especially a small business? And even big businesses like Amazon, for example, they're gonna cut corners. I mean, the money has to come from somewhere because they're not gonna make less. But what this is trying to get at though, there is a real struggle in this country with the cost of living rising faster than wages. And that is the grander scheme that they're trying to take care of here with talk like this. What is the right answer to that problem? I think people have to educate themselves so that they can get better paying jobs. I mean, really, I mean, that's what it comes down to. The solution are fine jobs where you can get bonuses. For example, say you have a salary position and make 40 grand a year, find a job that's gonna pay you a bonus if you work overtime or if you bring in a certain amount of sales. I mean, you can make bonuses a job. Sometimes if your salary is 40 grand a year, you can make $20,000 a year in bonuses and then you're at 60,000. Now that's a lot better than say 32,000 or 40,000. I think people really ideally these minimum wage jobs were set out to help people start out. The best thing people can do is work hard, find better jobs, don't give up. If you've been having a hard time finding a good job out there, just keep going. You gotta keep plugging away. Yeah. All right, real quick, we wanna get your reaction to this. As you know, we're expecting to hear from Robert Mueller this week. It's gonna be a big week, a business week. But the question is, what is this going to do to the markets? Do you think this week? I definitely think this is gonna be a very interesting day. So it's gonna be kind of like a Federal Reserve day where the Fed comes out and says they're gonna raise rates or they're gonna drop rates because I think the market's gonna be wild. Now that's being said, long term, I don't think this is gonna negatively affect the market. But on Wednesday, if you're an active trader, I say take a step back. And if you're a long-term investor, I'm sure that whatever moves the market has that are wild, it just wiggles and jiggles and comes right back. But I'll tell you right now, the market loves Trump. That's obscene, 27,000 on the Dow. Yeah, 27,000 on the Dow. We made new highs in the S&P. We made more new highs since Trump got elected. And in fact, we're nowhere near where the market was when Trump got elected. So if you, in fact, I think there's 0% that the market ever goes back to the price that it was at on the day that Trump got elected unless for some reason he does not get re-elected. I hope you're right, Melissa. Thank you so much. We do appreciate your time. Thank you, thanks for joining us. It is 19 minutes after the hour A, food fight in Washington. The new rules being unveiled today that could strip millions of their benefits but save the country billions. And Amanda Knox wants to have the best party ever and she needs your help. The acquitted killer's shameless crowd funding appeal for her wedding. Stay tuned. Hey, hey. Well, I need a dollar, dollar, dollar that's what I need. Hey, hey. So I need a dollar, dollar, dollar that's what I need.