In 2019 House Democrats passed the Raise the Wage Act. It
would lift the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 in 2025. How many and
what kinds of people would such a $15 minimum wage help? And by how much? Here
are key takeaways from research by David Cooper at the Economic Policy
Institute.
1. The $15 minimum would lift 23.2 million workers directly
and 10.2 indirectly as employers raise wages
above $15 to attract and keep employees. More than 33 million workers would get
a raise. That’s about a fifth of the U.S. work force, and equivalent to the
combined population of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Denmark. In other words, a
lot of people.
2. What kinds of people
will the new minimum help the most? Will it mainly lift teens who, in the
conservative narrative, do not need help because they live at home and,
apparently, come from affluent families?
The simple answer is no.
--Most of those who would gain
from the new minimum would be at least 20 years old.
--Two of three would be
full-time workers.
--Two of three would be
women.
--Almost 5 million of
those helped would be single parents.
--6.2 million would come
from the population labeled poor by the federal government. (Sad to say, many will
still be poor, whether or not $15 lifts them above federal poverty lines. Even
for a full-time, year-round worker, $15 an hour is just over $31,000 a year. That
will not make a person in high rent areas or an adult with one dependent in almost
any location unpoor.)
3. In which business sectors
will the most employees get a bump? 19.6% of all the gainers would be in the retail
sector, 18.6% in restaurant and food services, and 13.6% in healthcare.
4. What will be the average increase for an affected worker over what her pay would have been otherwise? The
total dollar increase for a year-round worker will amount to $2,800, or 13.3%.
5. In which states would workers get the largest benefits? Many of the answers almost write themselves.
Workers in states with weak or no minimum wage laws will gain a lot. In almost
every southern state, workers would gain significantly more than the national average
of a 13.3% hike. Working poor people in Texas would get a 17.5% increase and
those in Mitch McConnell’s Kentucky would get an 18% hike. Non-southern states
that get a higher than average boost from the $15 federal wage include Wyoming,
Idaho, Utah, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. States whose workers get little
boost from the federal $15 wage must be doing something right. Some are already
climbing. They include California, Colorado, Missouri, New York, Oregon,
Vermont, and Arizona.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The main source for this
post is an Economic Policy Institute Fact Sheet by David Cooper, Raising the Federal Minimum Wage to $15 by
2025 Would Lift Wages for over 33 Million Workers (July 17, 2019).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frank Stricker is a board
member of the National Jobs for All Network and emeritus professor of history at
California State University, Dominguez Hills.