In an attempt to balance the city budget, Scranton, Pa. cut all city worker pay last week to minimum wage, $7.25 an hour. The news came as wages around the country appear to be falling.

"Falling wages are taking us back to where we were before the recession," wrote Atlantic magazine associate editor Jordan Weissmann. "For many workers, that's not a good place. And there aren't any easy ways out of it."

In a time of economic uncertainty, would raising the minimum wage provide a better quality of life for many hourly workers, or would it lead to larger deficits and keep employers from hiring?

Weissmann will join The Daily Circuit Thursday to talk about raising the minimum wage. David Neumark, director of the Center for Economics and Public Policy at University of California-Irvine, will also join the discussion.

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