April 29, 2020 / By mobanmarket
NEW YORK, NY — More than 5 million minimum wage workers will see their paychecks go up this year across 20 states and two dozen cities and counties. That’s according to a new analysis by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, which tracks minimum wage changes. The pay hikes come even as the federal minimum wage remains stagnant for the 12th consecutive year, the EPI said.
The raises aren’t large by any stretch of the imagination though, ranging from as low as a nickel bump in Alaska to $1 in Maine and Massachusetts. California companies with more than 25 workers must also give minimum wage workers a $1-an-hour increase.
Eight states — Alaska, Florida, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, South Dakota and Vermont — increased minimum wages automatically to keep up with inflation. This is intended to ensure those workers don’t lose buying power from year to year, as has happened with those making the federal minimum wage. (Their buying power has fallen by more than 12 percent.)
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In six states — California, Delaware, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York and Rhode Island — the increases were set by state lawmakers. Several of those bumps were part of broader plans to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
The remaining six states — Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Missouri and Washington — saw their minimum wages climb due to voter ballots.
“In recent years, as federal and state lawmakers in many states have failed to update minimum wages, voters have taken up the charge themselves, passing wage increases at the ballot box,” the authors of the blog post wrote.
Minimum wage increases are one of the most straightforward ways to boost pay for the lowest-earning workers, the EPI said. A “flurry” of increases in recent years have led to “sizable” wage gains for millions.
“After decades of policy choices that have suppressed wage growth for the most workers, it is encouraging that policymakers and voters have increasingly embraced this simple and effective policy tool,” the author wrote.
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