The Tribune editorial today is entitled: The minimum wage mirage

A better way to help poor people is to increase the Earned Income Tax Credit, which supplements the wages of low-income working families. Its genius is that it increases the compensation of low-wage workers without inducing companies to cut back hiring. And it spreads the costs of this generosity across all taxpayers, instead of singling out employers.

This approach lacks the bumper-sticker appeal of legislating pay raises for some workers. But it also lacks the serious drawbacks that still make the minimum wage a losing deal.

The Daily Southtown editorial is headlined: Minimum wage should be raised as governor wants

The governor is right. At a time when corporate salaries are soaring, workers at the bottom of corporate ladder should share in the benefits, too. […]

Advocates of an increase point out that the average American corporate CEO saw his salary increase 16.1 percent between 2004 and 2005 alone. A study by the American Federation of Labor said the average CEO receives salary and benefits equivalent to the salary and benefits of 411 average employees. In 1990, the ratio was 107 employees to one CEO, and in 1980, it was “only” 42 to 1.

Obviously, that gap between average Americans and those at the top of the corporate ladder is growing at an astounding pace. While the CEOs of the 500 Standard and Poor’s corporations was $13.5 million in 2005, a minimum-wage workers in Illinois earns only $13,520 a year.

Opponents worry increasing the minimum wage would result in workers being laid off or not being hired in the first place. But a $1-per-hour hike would amount to little more than $2,000 a year for an hourly worker.

Pick a side, or come up with your own argument.