17 States Increasing Minimum Wage 1/1/2020 [Archive]

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dado potato

1-1-20, 3:09pm

Some state governments are increasing the minimum wage, as follow:
$13.50 WA
$13.00 CA
$12.75 MA
$12.00 AZ, CO, ME
$11.00 CT, MD, NJ
$10.00 AR, MN
$9.65 MI
$9.45 MO
$9.30 SD
$9.25 DE, IL
$9.00 NM

Some cities are setting minimum wage ordinances that are higher than the state minimum wage.

Meanwhile the movement for a living wage continues... for example http://fightfor15.org

iris lilies

1-1-20, 3:19pm

Yppej

1-1-20, 3:42pm

A rising minimum wage is good news for me. In a tight labor market it puts pressure on employers to give annual increases to others making more than the minimum.

gimmethesimplelife

1-1-20, 3:58pm

Chiming in from Arizona and a lower income zip code. It's wonderful to me that Arizona, of all places , has emerged as a bit of a leader on this issue. It's like I said once before here - one reason I stay here beyond my incredibly cheap housing deal is that Arizona is endlessly politically interesting. It can be extremely liberal out of nowhere here - such as on this issue, and then BOOM - just as quickly, back to the regularly scheduled Conservative programming. And then yet liberal again out of nowhere at some future point down the road. Rob

Yppej

1-1-20, 4:16pm

I remember in 2016 people being shocked that Bernie Sanders held rallies in places like Arkansas, but look at them go on the list! Michigan is there too. I hope the Democrats don't settle for a timid business as usual nominee with no vision for working America.

Teacher Terry

1-1-20, 4:41pm

I wish Nevada was raising their’s. It’s very expensive here in comparison to wages.

gimmethesimplelife

1-1-20, 5:22pm

So?

Do you have some personal comments to make about this? Otherwise it seems to me that you are dropping a random news item, one of potential thousands, onto this website. Why did you choose this news story to highlight? Does it have personal significance to you?

I do not consider the Simple Living Network to be a source of general news. But, if we wish to make it that, should we all be dropping links to news stories of the day?Given that per IRS statistics (meaning that the US Government is ACTUALLY fessing up to this), fully half of all US workers make less than 30K a year. In a country with rapidly rising prices and in which human life is not worth socialized medicine and in which the current dominant political party could care less of the consequences/fallout of either of these two facts, I'd say rises in minimum wage across scattered US states are not only a HUGE DEAL but front page news for the entire year, perhaps even eclipsing Election 2020's results. Yes, this matters that much to that many people in the America I live in. I do get though that in your America, YMMV, and it has to right to do so - I also get that. Rob

rosarugosa

1-1-20, 6:06pm

A rising minimum wage is good news for me. In a tight labor market it puts pressure on employers to give annual increases to others making more than the minimum.

Jep: It did exactly that for my DH. He has a part time job on the lower end of the earnings scale, and he recently got a significant raise since apparently they want to keep them above the minimum. His dept does have trouble attracting and retaining good workers. It's kind of a fun job but doesn't pay much. That's not really a problem for us, but certainly would be for a lot of people.

JaneV2.0

1-1-20, 6:53pm

Where people have more disposable income (and with the poor and lower middle class, it's all disposable), they will spend most or all of it, thus strengthening the economy.

frugal-one

1-1-20, 6:59pm

happystuff

1-1-20, 7:27pm

Interesting. It seems I was wrong about the minimum wage level in my own state and am glad to see the increase. Sadly, I thought it was higher, but at least it is going up.

Thanks for posting.

JaneV2.0

1-1-20, 7:56pm

More disposable income should make a lot of simple livers lives easier, if only a little.

sweetana3

1-1-20, 8:07pm

Be wary of unintended consequences.

One of our local restaurants closed for remodeling and when it reopened, the whole concept was now counter order and food delivered to table with number. Reason given: cost of employees.

We also have a huge number of Amazon warehouses that are going robotic as much as possible to reduce employees and therefore cost of labor.

Rise in part time only work here is considered by many to be caused by cost of the fringe benefits for full time employees.

So it is good for those who can find a job but does not help those who cannot find a job and may find it even harder than ever to find a job.

bae

1-1-20, 9:00pm

Given that per IRS statistics (meaning that the US Government is ACTUALLY fessing up to this), fully half of all US workers make less than 30K a year.

What is your specific source?

The easy-to-find standard government statistics seem to indicate your number is low, if you are going by median income, unless you are somehow factoring in kids with newspaper routes.

bae

1-1-20, 9:05pm

Some state governments are increasing the minimum wage, as follow:...

...

Meanwhile the movement for a living wage continues...

I've noticed an increasingly common conflation the past few years of "minimum wage" with "living wage".

I saw a bunch of articles last week complaining that the average apartment couldn't be rented in many cities on a minimum wage income. As if that was some new social injustice.

gimmethesimplelife

1-2-20, 6:47pm

Yes. If relevant. This is.Thank You, Flowerseverywhere. Rob

jp1

1-2-20, 11:24pm

Has anyone found a source that shows what percentage of workers in each state are earning that state's minimum wage? Or data showing how many people nationwide are earning the minimum wage for wherever they live? The only data I've been able to find is that only 4.3% of workers (as of 2013) earn the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour. That's not particularly surprising given that the majority of americans live in states or localities with minimum wages higher than the federal minimum wage. And it makes the statistic about how many people earn the federal minimum completely pointless and misleading. I realize that this becomes complicated (and is probably why I can't find the data I would like to see). For instance in California the minimum is now $13.50, but for anyone working in San Francisco the minimum is now $15, so one can't just look at the california minimum and compare it to the number of Californians earning $13.50/hour to get an accurate number. All the workers who have jobs in San Francisco that pay $15 wouldn't be counted as minimum wage workers even though they are.

Teacher Terry

1-3-20, 12:09pm

In Nevada many of the minimum wage workers get tips. For instance the cocktail waitresses and bartenders make good money. So the statistics would be misleading.

Yppej

1-3-20, 6:06pm

I thought it is legal to pay below minimum wage for tipped workers.

dado potato

1-3-20, 10:24pm

I understand that in each states there is a minimum wage, and if an employee receives a tip, a portion of the tip is a "tip credit" which reduces the cash wage the employer must pay.

There is information on Tipped Min. Wage" for each state at http://www.minimum-wage.org

Teacher Terry

1-4-20, 2:41am

Not in Nevada.

dado potato

1-4-20, 12:32pm

The variety of state minimum wage laws for tipped employees can be seen at http://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/minimum-wage/tipped

In 7 states the minimum wage is payable to tipped workers without a "tip credit" and reduction of the cash hourly wage: Nevada, Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.

gimmethesimplelife

1-4-20, 6:37pm

In Nevada many of the minimum wage workers get tips. For instance the cocktail waitresses and bartenders make good money. So the statistics would be misleading.I often debated moving to Las Vegas and working f and b when I was younger due to this very reason. The only reason I didn't is several people that had done this before and left Vegas told me that I was too decent of a person to survive Vegas, that I'd get eaten alive there. The few people I have run into in the f and b biz from Vegas seemed to me to confirm this take so I stayed away. Rob

Teacher Terry

1-4-20, 8:18pm

My DIL makes really good money in Reno as a cocktail waitress working days.

Yppej

1-4-20, 9:11pm

I heard about more exceptions to my state's $12.75 minimum wage law today on the radio. Agricultural workers have a minimum of $8.00 per hour and there is no minimum for outside salespeople or those in certain paid training programs.

If the agricultural wage were $12.75 I bet we wouldn't have to bring in migrant farmworkers from Jamaica. Americans would do the work.