$15minimumwage no longer fringe idea
It started in 2012with a group of protesters outside a McDonald’s demanding a $15 minimumwage— an idea t even many liberal lawmakers considered outlandish.
In the years since, their fight has gained support across the country, including in conservative states with low union membership and generally weak labor laws.
On Friday, 20 states and 32 cities and counties raised their minimum wage. In 27 of these places, the pay floor will reach or exceed $15 an hour, according to a report released Thursday by the National Employment Law Project, which supports minimum-wage increases.
The movement’s strength — a ballot measure to increase the minimumwage in Florida to $15 by 2026 was passed in November — could put renewed pressure on Congress to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour, where it has been since 2009.
President-elect Joe Biden has endorsed $15 anhour at the federal level and other changes sought by labor groups, like ending the practice of a lower minimum wage for workers such as restaurant employees who receive tips.
But even without congressional action, labor activists said they would keep pushing their campaign at the state and local levels.
By 2026, 42 percent of Ameri-
cans will work in a location with a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour, an Economic Policy Institute estimate cited in the NELP report states.
“The COVID crisis has really exacerbated inequalities across society,” said Greg Daco, chief U.S. economist for Oxford Economics. “This has given more strength to these movements that try to ensure that everyone benefits from a
strong labor market in the form of a sustainable salary.”
Workers during the pandemic have been subject to furloughs, pay cuts and decreased hours. Low-wage service workers have not had the option of working from home, and the customer-facing nature of their jobs puts them at greater risk for contracting the virus.
Many retailers gave workers
raises — or “hero pay” — at the beginning of the pandemic, only to quietly end the practice in the summer — even as the virus continued to surge in many states.
Because many hourly service workers are Black, Hispanic, Native American and Asian, people of color stand to gain the most from minimum-wage increases.
A2018 study fromthe Economic Policy Institute found that workers of color are far more likely to be paid poverty-level wages than Anglo workers.
“It’s the single most dramatic action to create racial equality,” Henry said.
Some economists say lifting the minimum wage will benefit the economy and could be an important part of the recovery from the pandemic recession.
That’s partly because lower-income workers typically spend most of the money they earn, and that spending primarily takes place where they live and work.
Many business groups counter that increasing the minimum wage willhurt smallbusinesses, already beleaguered by the pandemic.
Increasing the minimum wage could lead employers to lay off some workers in order to pay others more, said David Neumark, an economics professor at the University of California at Irvine.
“There’s a ton of research that says increasing minimum wages can cause some job loss,” he said. “Plenty workers are helped, but some are hurt.”
A 2019 Congressional Budget Office study found a $15 federal minimum wage would increase pay for 17 million workers who earned less than that and potentially another 10 million workers who earned slightly more.
According to the study’s median estimate, itwould cause 1.3million other workers to lose their jobs.