Abby Lane, Fellow

It’s the first Friday of the month and we’re back with your monthly dose of jobs data. The data released today detail that the overall economy added 163,000 jobs in July, with women gaining just over half of those jobs.

So what’s the big takeaway from the jobs data for July? Public sector jobs.

I’m sure that you’re beginning to think we sound like a broken record over here, but the truth is that public sector job losses are harming both women and men in the recovery, but especially women. Despite the fact that women picked up a few thousand public sector jobs this month, their overall losses still drive their slow recovery.

True or false: raising the minimum wage is bad for the economy.

False. While many opponents of raising the minimum wage would have you believe otherwise, the truth of the matter is that raising the minimum wage is good for the economy. So the next time you run into a critic of raising the minimum wage, here are three points to help you set the record straight.

1. Raising the minimum wage does not cause job loss, even during periods of recession. A recent report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reviewed several studies that found that minimum wage increases do not have negative effects on the labor market. The most recent study by Allegretto, Dube, and Reich (2011) looked at the impact of raising the minimum wage at different phases of the business cycle between 1999 and 2009. The study didn’t find evidence that minimum wage increases caused any job loss, even during the Great Recession of 2007-2009.