It started in 2012 with a group of protesters outside a McDonald’s demanding a minimum wage of $ 15 – an idea that even many liberal lawmakers consider strange. In the years that followed, their struggles intensified across the country, including in conservative states with low union membership and generally poor labor laws.
On Friday, 20 states and 32 cities and provinces will raise their minimum wage. At 27 of these locations, 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 strength of the movement – a ballot measure to raise the minimum wage in Florida to $ 2026 by 2026 was adopted in November – could put Congress under renewed pressure to raise the federal minimum wage from $ 7.25 per hour, where it since 2009. The elected president. Joseph R. Biden Jr. endorsed $ 15 per hour at the federal level and other changes sought by workgroups, such as ending the practice of a lower minimum wage for workers such as restaurant workers terminating tips.
But even without congressional action, activists have said they will continue to campaign at the state and local levels. By 2026, 42 percent of Americans will do so work in a place with a minimum wage of at least $ 15 per hour, according to an estimate by the Economic Policy Institute in the NELP report.
“These wages, which are rising in a record number of states, are the result of years of advocacy by workers and years of marching on the streets and the organization of their associates and their communities,” said Yannet Lathrop, a researcher and policy analyst at the group. said.
Wage rates are rising as workers struggle amid a recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic that has left millions unemployed.
“The Covid crisis has really exacerbated inequalities in society,” said Greg Daco, chief economist at the U.S. economy in Oxford. “It has given more impetus to these movements trying to ensure that everyone benefits from a strong labor market in the form of a sustainable salary.”
Workers during the pandemic are subject to looting, remuneration and reduced hours. Low-wage service workers did not have the option to work from home, and the customer-oriented nature of their work puts them at greater risk of contracting the virus. Many retailers gave workers increases at the beginning of the pandemic – or ‘hero pay’, only to quietly end the practice in the summer, even though the virus was still on the rise in many countries.
“The coronavirus pandemic has driven many working families into deep poverty,” said Anthony Advincula, communications director at Restaurant Opportunities Centers United. A non-profit organization that focuses on improving wages and working conditions. “This minimum wage increase will therefore be a very welcome boost for low-wage workers, especially in the restaurant industry.”
Mary Kay Henry, international president of the Service Employees International Union, said the labor movement in 2021 would make even more workers up to $ 15 an hour or more a priority.
“There are still millions of workers who need more money in their pockets,” she said, adding that the election of Mr. Biden and the Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would strengthen the effort. “We have an incredible opportunity.”
Because many hourly service workers are black, Hispanic, Native American, and Asian, colored people can earn the most from the minimum wage increases. A 2018 study by the Economic Policy Institute found that color workers would pay far more at the poverty level than white workers.
“This is the most dramatic action to bring about racial equality,” she said. Henry said.
Some economists believe that raising the minimum wage will benefit the economy and could play an important part in repairing the recession of the pandemic. This is partly because lower-income workers usually spend the most money they earn, and that expenses occur mainly where they live and work.
Kate Bahn, director of labor market policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, said growth after the 2007-9 recession was anemic for years as wages stagnated and the labor market slowly receded.
“There has been a broader recognition that the weak wage growth we have seen over the last thirty years and since the Great Recession reflects structural imbalances in the economy and structural inequality,” Ms Bahn said.
Many business groups argue that raising the minimum wage will hurt small businesses, which are already under siege by the pandemic. According to the National Restaurant Association, more than 110,000 restaurants closed permanently or for the long term during the pandemic.
Raising the minimum wage could lead employers to fire some workers to pay others more, said David Neumark, a professor of economics at the University of California, Irvine.
“There is a lot of research that says that raising minimum wages can cause job losses,” he said. “Many workers are helped, but some get hurt.”
A 2019 study by the Congressional Budget Office found that a federal minimum wage of $ 15 would pay for 17 million workers earning less than that, and another 10 million workers earning slightly more. According to the study’s median estimate, it will lose 1.3 million other workers their jobs.
In New York, Republican Senate Republican Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, urged to halt the increases that went into effect Thursday, arguing that for some small businesses it could be ‘the final straw’. be.
While raising the minimum wage to a certain point could lead to job losses, Ms Bahn of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth argued that “we are nowhere near that.”
Economic research has found that recent minimum wage increases have not caused large job losses. In a 2019 study, researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that wages rose sharply for recreational and hospitality workers in New York County bordering Pennsylvania, which has a lower minimum, while growth in jobs continues . In many cases, higher minimum wages are introduced over a few years to give businesses time to adjust.
Whether or not there is federal action, more government initiatives will seek to raise the minimum wage, said Arindrajit Dube, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts.
“On a basic level, people think it’s a matter of fairness,” he said. Dube said. “There is broad support for the idea that working people should get a living wage.”
Jeanna Smialek contribution made.