Government

Minimum wage increases correlate with stronger wage growth for low-income women and men

An “economic snapshot” from Elise Gould at the Economic Policy Institute shows that “when we compare states with any minimum wage change since 2013 with those without any… the association between states with at least one minimum wage change and growth in wages for low-wage workers is quite strong.” Wage growth at the 10th percentile in states with at least

Rhode Island News: Minimum wage increases correlate with stronger wage growth for low-income women and men

March 18, 2018, 10:28 am

By Steve Ahlquist

An “economic snapshot” from Elise Gould at the Economic Policy Institute shows that “when we compare states with any minimum wage change since 2013 with those without any… the association between states with at least one minimum wage change and growth in wages for low-wage workers is quite strong.”

Wage growth at the 10th percentile in states with at least one minimum wage increase from 2013 to 2017 was more than twice as fast as in states without any minimum wage increases (5.2 percent vs. 2.2 percent). As expected given women’s lower wages in general, this result is even stronger for women (5.1 percent vs. 0.8 percent).

Gould goes on to suggest that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2014 would “disproportionately raise pay for women.”

Among working parents with children in their home, 32.0 percent of working mothers would receive a raise, as would 16.8 percent of working fathers. Among single parents, the effects are more dramatic: 44.6 percent of all single mothers would receive a raise if the federal minimum wage were increased to $15 by 2024, as would nearly a third (31.0 percent) of single fathers. Large shares of minority workers would also benefit: 37.1 percent of women of color would receive a raise, along with 29.1 percent of men of color.


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