Minimum Wage

UPDATE: View our interactive map, Women and the Minimum Wage, State by State (June 25, 2013)

Analysis by the Economic Policy Institute reveals that nearly one million workers will get a raise from these increases. In each state, women are the majority of the workers who will see their wages go up. The impact on women is the largest in Missouri where they are nearly three-quarters of the workers who will benefit from the increased minimum wage. The economies of these states will also benefit — the increase in minimum wages will add nearly $184 million to GDP in 2013. 

These increases added some more good news to the victories minimum wage workers saw in the last few months — voters chose to increase the minimum wage in Albuquerque, San Jose, and Long Beach, and a bill to raise New Jersey's minimum wage has made its way to Governor Christie's desk.

Sadly, however, the minimum wage is still falling short for millions of Americans, especially women. Read more »

One year ago, President Obama announced new regulations proposed by the Department of Labor (DOL) that would grant minimum wage and overtime pay to home care workers, a workforce that has been unfairly denied these basic protections for decades. In his remarks last December, he described a day he spent with Pauline Beck, a home care worker from Oakland, California:

“When we met, she was getting up every day at 5:00 a.m. to go to work taking care of an 86-year-old amputee named ‘Mr. John.’ And each day, she’d dress Mr. John and help him into his wheelchair. She’d make him breakfast. She’d scrub his floors. She’d clean his bathroom. She was his connection to the outside world. And when the workday was done, she would go home to take care of a grandnephew and two foster children who didn’t have families of their own. Heroic work, and hard work. That’s what Pauline was all about.”

Pauline’s story is illustrative. Like Pauline, most home care workers are women. They take on the vitally important work of caring for our neighbors and family members who need help to stay in their homes – and like Pauline, many home care workers also have their own families to support. But for decades, their difficult and demanding jobs have come without the basic protections of the federal minimum wage and overtime laws. Read more »

This is major!

The New Jersey legislature just passed a bill to raise the state's minimum wage and index it to keep pace with inflation. Now it's all up to Governor Christie. For this bill to become law, he just has to sign it.

So why are we worried? Governor Christie has threatened not to sign the bill.

That's why we need to turn the pressure up! Please take a second and call Governor Christie to let him know that hundreds of thousands of working New Jersey women need a raise.

Calling is easy. Dial 609-292-6000. When connected, please tell the Governor's office:

• Your name, where you are from, and that you are a constituent.
• "Please tell Governor Christie that I strongly urge him to give hardworking New Jerseyans a raise by signing the minimum wage bill, including the cost of living adjustment. Thank you."

Read more »

Big news from the Garden State yesterday: the New Jersey Senate voted to raise the minimum wage! Specifically, the Senate approved the bill passed by the Assembly in May, which would raise the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50 per hour and adjust it annually to keep pace with the rising cost of living. Once the Assembly approves a technical amendment to the bill to change the effective date (expected to occur in mid-December), it will be sent to Governor Christie.  

This is an important step forward for hundreds of thousands of minimum wage workers in New Jersey, most of whom are women. Today, full-time minimum wage earnings of $14,500 a year leave a mom with two children thousands of dollars below the federal poverty line. Raising New Jersey’s minimum wage to $8.50 per hour would mean an extra $2,500 per year, which could make a real difference for women and families struggling to make ends meet.

Here in D.C. and across the country, election results consume the headlines, even as many of us breathe a sigh of relief that the long campaign season is over. But in addition to the big-ticket races on Election Day, there were a number of ballot initiatives in cities and states that are less publicized nationally but no less important to the people affected. These include three municipal ballot measures – in Albuquerque, San Jose, and Long Beach – to raise the minimum wage. All three passed with substantial majorities, meaning many low-wage workers in these cities will soon find it a bit easier to make ends meet. Specifically:

• In Albuquerque, New Mexico, the minimum wage will rise from $7.50 to $8.50 per hour in January 2013, and will automatically adjust in future years to keep up with inflation. New Mexico Voices for Children estimates that 40,000 workers (one-seventh of Albuquerque’s workforce) will see higher paychecks as a result – generating about $18 million in consumer spending and helping to create new jobs as businesses expand to meet the increased demand.

Back in May, New Jersey seemed to be on its way to a higher minimum wage when the state’s General Assembly passed a bill (A-2162) to raise the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50 per hour and index it to keep pace with inflation. That raise is urgently needed: full-time minimum wage earnings of $14,500 a year leave a mom with two kids thousands of dollars below the federal poverty line in a state with one of the highest costs of living in the country. But after Governor Christie made it clear he would not sign the bill, it stalled without a vote in the state Senate.

This month, however, the minimum wage is back on the legislative agenda in New Jersey. Senate President Steve Sweeney recently introduced a resolution (SCR 1) proposing an amendment to New Jersey’s constitution that would raise the minimum wage to $8.25 per hour and index it for inflation. The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee approved the resolution last week, and the Senate Labor Committee held a public hearing yesterday. The resolution will next move before the full Senate. Read more »

Over the past few years, we’ve all heard a lot of people blame a lot of different things for high unemployment. Is it high taxes? Burdensome regulations? An angry jobs monster?

This week, Dylan Matthews of the Washington Post reviewed economic evidence which reveals that the biggest driver of high unemployment is low demand. Over 8 percent of Americans are unemployed, and lower-income and middle-class Americans have seen their income and wealth decrease over the last decade. So as you might imagine, many are pinching their pennies and spending less on goods and services. The end result is that businesses don’t have enough money or confidence to hire more workers.

The key, then, to really chipping into high unemployment numbers is creating more demand for goods and services. Matthews suggests looser monetary policy and fiscal stimulus. Here’s another idea: increase the minimum wage. Read more »

If you’ve been following our work on the minimum wage over the past several months, you know that the federal minimum wage is just $7.25 per hour and the minimum cash wage for tipped workers is a mere $2.13 per hour. These wages, which are not adjusted for inflation, are falling farther behind every year. In fact, the earnings of a single mom with two kids who works at a minimum wage job full time are thousands of dollars below the poverty line.

Although Congress is out of town for a few weeks, work on federal and local minimum wage campaigns continues to move forward. Nationally, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) just released a great analysis that underscores the economic and social benefits of the minimum wage. EPI’s analysis, How raising the federal minimum wage would help working families and give the economy a boost, shows that the bills introduced just a few weeks ago in the House and Senate that raise the minimum wage to $9.80 over three years (and adjust for inflation after that) and the cash minimum wage for tipped workers to 70 percent of the minimum wage would lift the wages of more than 28 million workers, the majority of whom (55 percent) are women. The analysis also shows that raising the minimum wage would create an estimated 100,000 new jobs by putting money in the pockets of people who are ready to spend it on goods and services, thus increasing consumer demand. Interested in how raising the federal minimum wage might affect your state? EPI has those numbers, too. Read more »

Just this Tuesday, workers and advocates joined together in a National Day of Action to fight for an increase in the minimum wage. Two days later, we have cause to celebrate.

Today, Representative George Miller and Senator Tom Harkin introduced the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012. In a strong showing of support in the House, the bill had over 100 cosponsors who recognize the importance of raising the nation’s minimum wage.

Millions of workers – mostly women – struggle to make ends meet on minimum wage earnings. The last increase to the federal minimum wage came three years ago, to just $7.25 per hour. This wage adds up to only $14,500 per year for full-time, year-round workers – wages that would leave a working mother and two children below the poverty line. Read more »

$7.25 an hour. Imagine feeding a family on that. That’s the magic trick low-wage working women – who make up 2/3 of those earning minimum wages or less – have to perform on a daily basis.

As Kate Gallagher Robbins pointed out yesterday, an hourly wage of $7.25 leaves a person working full time year round with just $14,500—or $3000 below the poverty line for a mom with two kids.

But where does that $7.25 an hour leave workers who can’t get a full-time job? Involuntary part-time work is a huge problem for low-wage workers in today’s labor market. BLS data from 2011 (PDF) show that 8.5 million people were in part-time work for economic reasons like slack work, only being able to find a part-time job or seasonal work.

Instead of multiplying $7.25 by 40 hours a week, for these workers the math looks more like $7.25 x 20 or 25 hours (and in many cases, even fewer hours). In other words, workers earning minimum wages in involuntary part-time jobs are hit much harder by the painfully low minimum wage. Read more »