President Barack Obama has thrown his support for the proposed minimum wage increase to the delight of the public who have been yearning for it for the longest time now. But just like the beneficiaries, the government of the United States should also feel very happy with this development because the pay increase can help the White House achieve one of its main goal, to reduce poverty rate.

According to a study by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, around 4.6 million people will be moved out of the poverty line because of the government's decision to raise the $7.25 an hour minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. It also said that the bill can also reduce the ranks of the nation's poor by 6.8 million, accounting for longer-term effects.

"What I found is very robust evidence that minimum wage increases tend to have a moderate reduction in the poverty rate," said economist Arindrajit Dube from the UMA according to the Huffington Post.

"[The $10.10] increase would erase more than half of the increase in poverty we have seen during the Great Recession," Dube said. "We're talking about roughly 5 million less people in poverty in America."

While some think-tanks believe that the salary increase would do good to the economy, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said it is not enough, at least for his own people.

"Our city is becoming an unaffordable city for too many middle-class families, artists, students, young people, service-industry workers, immigrants new to the country," Murray said last month. "Seattle really is on the cusp of falling beyond the financial reach of too many of those who give our city its diverse character - of the very people who make this city run."

To solve the problem, Murray suggested to set the minimum wage to $15 for thousands of workers in SeaTac, a suburb of Seattle. The mayor's bill is backed by Labor leader David Rolf, president of SEIU 77NW and Socialist City Council member Kshama Sawant.