With the start of the new year, 20 states have raised their minimum wage — by as much as $1.50 per hour and as little as 8 cents.
For some workers, the increases will help their families whose bread earners have been hard-hit by the coronavirus and are trying to make ends meet. For others, miniscule increases won’t make much of a dent.
“We have lots of low-wage, service workers who are working through the COVID crisis, many of whom are in jobs with a greater risk of transmission,” Ken Jacobs, chair of the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California-Berkeley told CNN.
“This will be a very welcome boost for them. As well, a lot of families are struggling right now in this crisis,” Jacobs said.
The biggest minimum wage jump comes in New Mexico, which raised the required salary by $1.50, to $10.50. The tiniest increase comes in Minnesota, where workers will gain an additional 8 cents an hour, to $10.08.
Among states with big increases are Arkansas (up $1 to $11), California (up $1 to $14), Illinois (up $1 to $11) and New Jersey (up $1 to $12).
Among those with small increases are Alaska (up $15 cents to $10.34), Arizona (up 15 cents to $12.15), Florida (up 9 cents to $8.65), Maine (up 15 cents to $12.15), Montana (up 10 cents to $8.75), Ohio (up 10 cents to $8.80), South Dakota (up 15 cents to $9.45) and Washington (up 19 cents to $13.69).
Other states providing increases are Colorado (32 cents to $12.32), Maryland (75 cents to $11.75), Massachusetts (75 cents to $13.50), New York (70 cents to $12.50) and Vermont (79 cents to $11.75).
New York city, however, has a $15-per-hour minimum wage, and certain suburban areas are higher than the $12.50, as well.
Some states are not permitted by law to increase the minimum wage under certain conditions. for example, Michigan, a state law requires that the annual unemployment average fall below 8.5%. Unemployment there stood at 10.2 percent through 12 months of 2020, making it impossible to bring the average below the mandated minimum.
The federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 per hour, and 20 states — most in the South and West –have a minimum either equal to or below that amount.
The minimum wage increases this year “are an indication that people understand how much the $7.25 federal minimum wage keeps people in poverty,” Holly Sklar, chief executive officer of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, told CBS News.
Copyright 2021 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.
—-
This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
Minimum wage jobs should be a springboard to advancing oneself, to supplement income or for a temporary job, for high school and college students.
That’s how it SHOULD BE.. However, how it’s used, is totally different.
For every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction. Some will temporarily get more in dollars and more in work to do the same job with less people, others will get less, when their jobs are eliminated so the business can survive, or when machines replace them, as well as the others who temporarily remain get incrementally replaced by employers who seek more cost efficient ways to replace human labor they must pay taxes and social benefits on, replaced with machines who do not have to pay continual taxes on but are a one time expense. Paying people to stay home in entitlement will grow by leaps and bounds which in essence is the nation changes that Socialist Schumer and his pandering party of pestiferous politicians promise in pandering to the socially weak for votes.
Bear in mind that businesses pay no tax increases. They just raise the price of their products and pass the gas of it on to their customers, or lower their costs in inferior products or inferior employess. Minimum wages just create the latter by killing employee incentives to excel who leave the establishment to greener pastures where their talensts are appreciated and rewarded, leaving only the inferior left that provide inferior products and services.
Hasn’t that always how the commucrats have been?? INCREASE the # of voters living off welfare, to increase their voting base??
WHICH IS WHY i’d love to travel back in time, and ENSURE THE constitution was CLEARLY WROTE< that anyone living off the govt's largesse, via welfare etc, ARE NEVER EVER eligible to vote, AS LONG AS THEY STAY ON IT..
Wage? Mininum wage? Under Biden aren’t we all going to live on rainbow stew and free bubble-up?
We don’t need no minimum wage.
Minimum wage laws keep people in poverty. So do other employment laws. Requiring employers to provide expensive benefits for full-time workers causes employers to hire fewer full-time employees. More part-time employees (doing the work of full-time employees) are cheaper than fewer full-timers.
Calling 30 hours/week full time keeps hourly workers in poverty, because they won’t be allowed to work more than 28 hours a week (I’m limited to 25). I’d have more money in my paycheck if full time went back to 40 hours, because I could work 32.5 hours a week at my job without getting benefits I don’t need or can’t afford.