Polls have shown the economy is the highest priority of voters. The candidates’ most specific plans have focused on taxes and spending. But many other factors affect the economy and the recovery — factors that have received significantly less focus from either candidate.

Wages:

In 2008, President Barack Obama campaigned on a promise to increase the federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour. He planned to raise it to $9.50 an hour by 2011 and then raise it to compensate for inflation periodically. He has failed to take action on this promise since taking office and has not yet mentioned it in his 2012 campaign.

Republican candidate Mitt Romney originally favored raising the minimum wage as well and also favored adjusting it yearly for inflation. But Romney changed his mind after an outcry from supporters concerned about job losses and now has come out against raising the minimum wage at this time.

The president supported and signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which gave women more freedom to sue over pay discrimination. Romney never has come out in support of equal pay and refuses to release his views on related legislation.

Wall Street regulation:

Obama signed the Dodd-Frank bill, an answer to the financial crisis designed to limit the risk in future recessions. This legislation provides for oversight on risks to the financial institutions most essential to the economy, consolidates regulatory organizations, creates a non-bankruptcy mechanism for the take-over of “too-big-to-fail” institutions and limits consumer financial fees, among other regulations.

Romney’s campaign website promises the candidate would “repeal Dodd-Frank and replace with streamlined, modern regulatory framework.” A more efficient regulatory system sounds nice, but Romney so far has offered few specifics on how this will be accomplished. No president should work to repeal a law before developing a workable replacement with some chance of passing Congress.

Outsourcing/foreign markets:

Romney has emphasized the need to go after China for currency manipulation, unfair trade practices and the violation of existing economic agreements. Obama largely agrees with this stance but has drawn criticism for not doing enough to protect America’s interests.

Obama’s website says he will eliminate tax breaks for companies that outsource and create incentives for businesses to bring jobs back to America.

His opponent has declared he would not support such an elimination of tax breaks. Romney also would eliminate taxes on profits American businesses earn on foreign soil. This could encourage business growth, as Romney claims, but it is just as likely to encourage businesses to favor foreign markets and move jobs overseas.

Other regulation:

The largest new set of regulations Obama has added fall under the unmbrella of health care reform. The Affordable Care Act forces insurance companies to provide more fair coverage to all Americans. Insurance companies no longer will be able to deny citizens policies on the basis of pre-existing conditions, charge exorbitant fees for medical services or cap the amount of coverage available to a person in the course of a year or in the course of his or her lifetime, among other restrictions.

Romney has vowed to repeal this law as quickly as possible, allowing states to waive its requirements in the meantime, though he has said he would keep some unspecified measures of the law.

The Republican candidate also has expressed support for a “regulatory cap of zero dollars on all federal agencies,” meaning federal agencies would not be able to pass any new regulations that have associated costs. This would indeed keep additional costs from being passed down to the consumer — Romney’s stated inspiration for the cap — but it also would tie the hands of agencies responsible for ensuring the educational quality, consumer safety and environmental health of this nation.

As Romney’s website puts it, this would restrict new regulations “no matter what the social benefits.”

The grades

Based on the candidates’ tax and spending plans and their views on these other economic issues, we have assigned each a letter grade for how well their position fulfill the goal of economic recovery.

Obama: B-

Though the president has weathered a difficult economic recession and done much to help soften the impact on citizens, he could stand to be more aggressive in his tax and spending reforms. And he has failed to give proper focus to some important issues connected to the economy.

Romney: I

We would give him a solid C for tax and spending plans that would achieve the desired result, but do so at too high a cost to consumers. However, considering the lack of specifics in his other stances related to the economy, we have to give him an incomplete until he does his homework.