Washington, DC After a year when thousands of low-wage workers

staged historic strikes to demand higher pay in the retail and fastfood industries, and after escalating calls from President Obama and
Congressional Democrats to raise the federal minimum wage for the
first time in four years, the new year will begin with 13 states
implementing minimum wage increases that are estimated to boost
the incomes of 2.5 million low-paid workers, according to an analysis
of Census data by the Economic Policy Institute.
Four of these states Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode
Island passed laws to raise the minimum wage earlier this year,
while the remaining nine states Arizona, Colorado, Florida,
Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington are
adjusting their minimum wages in accordance with state laws
requiring automatic annual increases to keep pace with the rising
cost of living. (California, which also passed a law this year to raise
its minimum wage, will raise its minimum wage in July).
The increases will generate an additional $619 million in new
economic growth as low-paid workers spend their increased
earnings on basic necessities like food, gasoline, and housing.
As Congress drags its feet on raising the federal minimum wage,
more and more Americans are earning poverty-level wages in
expanding industries like retail and fast food, said Christine Owens,
executive director of the National Employment Law Project. In the
face of federal inaction, states are boosting the paychecks of the
lowest-paid workers, promoting growth and consumer spending, and
hopefully providing an example for Congress to follow.
As the unemployment rate in many states continues to slowly
decline, new job growth remains disproportionately concentrated in
low-wage industries such as retail and food services, making an
increase in the minimum wage an urgent priority for growing
numbers of working families who are relying on low-wage work to
make ends meet. Fully 58 percent of new jobs created in the postrecession recovery have been low-wage occupations, according to a
2012 report by NELP.
A growing list of states and cities is expected to approve minimum
wage increases over the next year. Legislators have introduced
proposals in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Delaware, Maryland,
Minnesota, and Hawaii, while efforts to place minimum wage
increases on the November 2014 ballot are underway in South
Dakota, Alaska, New Mexico, Idaho, Arkansas, Massachusetts, and
the District of Columbia. Local leaders are also exploring citywide
minimum wage increases in Seattle, Chicago, and other cities.

In a rare example of regional cooperation, the District of Columbia

City Council approved a bill earlier this month to raise the Districts
minimum wage to $11.50 per hour, with parallel measures raising
the minimum wage to $11.50 per hour also approved in the
neighboring Maryland counties of Montgomery and Prince Georges.
The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, supported by President Obama
and introduced in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives
earlier this year, would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10
per hour and adjust it annually to keep pace with the rising cost of
living. The Fair Minimum Wage Act would also gradually raise the
minimum wage for tipped workers from its current low rate of $2.13
per hour, where it has been frozen since 1991, to 70 percent of the
full minimum wage.
At the local level, San Francisco will also increase its minimum wage
on New Years day, to $10.79 per hour, along with San Jose, which
will boost its wage to $10.15 per hour, in accordance with city
statutes requiring annual inflation indexing. The city of SeaTac,
Washington, will establish a $15 per hour wage for airport-related
hospitality and restaurant occupations, following a ballot measure
approved in November.
As of January 1st, 2014, 21 states, including the District of
Columbia, will have minimum wage rates above the federal level of
$7.25 per hour, which translates to just over $15,000 per year for a
full-time minimum wage earner.
The most rigorous economic research over the past 20 years shows
that raising the minimum wage boosts worker pay without causing
job losses even in regions where the economy is weak or
unemployment is high.
A recent study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research
reviews the past two decades of research on the impact of minimum
wage increases on employment and concludes that the weight of
the evidence points to little or no effect of minimum wage increases
on job growth. An April 2013 poll found that 67 percent of small
business owners support raising and indexing the minimum wage,
indicating that the majority believe an increase will help boost
economic growth.
The National Employment Law Project is a non-partisan, not-forprofit organization that conducts research and advocates on issues
affecting low-wage and unemployed workers. For more about NELP,
visit www.nelp.org or www.raisetheminimumwage.org