Raising the Minimum Wage

RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE:
A SMART POLICY FOR AMERICA'S WORKERS AND THE AMERICAN ECONOMY

July 28, 2000

Today, in his weekly radio address, President Clinton will call on Congress to pass clean, straightforward legislation to raise the minimum wage by $1 – from $5.15 to $6.15 – in two equal steps. The President first called for an increase in the minimum wage in his State of the Union Address in January 1999. Congress at first stalled and then held the minimum wage increase hostage for tax cuts that are part of a costly and fiscally irresponsible plan that would drain the entire surplus and leave nothing for priorities like an affordable Medicare prescription drug benefit. Congressional delay has cost a full-time minimum wage worker over $900.

Distribution of Wage and Salary Workers Paid Hourly Rates by State, 1999

 

Number (in thousands)

Percent of All Wage and Salary Workers

 

$5.15 to $6.14

$6.15 to $7.14

$5.15 to $6.14

$6.15 to $7.14

Total

10,093

8,370

13.9

11.6

Alabama

202

146

18.1

13.1

Alaska

9

13

5.5

7.6

Arizona

200

157

15.2

11.9

Arkansas

130

101

20.9

16.2

California

1,463

1,023

17.4

12.1

Colorado

79

92

7.3

8.4

Connecticut

62

70

7.5

8.6

Delaware

22

21

10.8

10.0

DC

12

12

10.0

10.7

Florida

597

530

15.5

13.8

Georgia

267

248

13.1

12.3

Hawaii

47

29

15.0

9.4

Idaho

58

45

15.6

12.3

Illinois

428

354

13.2

10.8

Indiana

180

209

9.8

11.4

Iowa

103

91

11.2

9.9

Kansas

123

96

15.6

12.3

Kentucky

157

161

14.2

14.7

Louisiana

297

123

25.9

10.7

Maine

45

39

11.8

10.4

Maryland

125

137

9.5

10.5

Massachusetts

161

162

9.6

9.7

Michigan

341

312

11.3

10.3

Minnesota

115

121

8.0

8.4

Mississippi

146

74

22.7

11.5

Missouri

172

169

11.9

11.8

Montana

54

32

21.5

12.7

Nebraska

67

68

13.2

13.6

Nevada

60

60

11.2

11.3

New Hampshire

29

31

8.2

8.5

New Jersey

205

187

10.6

9.8

New Mexico

75

39

18.0

9.1

New York

566

395

14.8

10.3

North Carolina

247

223

12.4

11.2

North Dakota

34

29

18.3

15.9

Ohio

427

356

12.7

10.6

Oklahoma

170

126

19.6

14.5

Oregon

35

184

3.7

19.7

Pennsylvania

454

338

13.8

10.3

Rhode Island

37

25

13.4

9.3

South Carolina

153

116

14.9

11.3

South Dakota

33

29

15.2

13.7

Tennessee

208

216

13.6

14.2

Texas

929

653

18.5

13.1

Utah

61

84

10.1

14.0

Vermont

21

20

12.4

11.5

Virginia

218

207

13.6

12.8

Washington

180

158

10.9

9.6

West Virgina

106

60

22.2

12.8

Wisconsin

157

177

8.9

10.0

Wyoming

25

19

17.8

13.8

Note: Workers in the $5.15 to $6.14 category would be directly affected by a $1.00 increase in the minimum wage. Those in the $6.15 to $7.14 category could be affected by spillovers.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, unpublished tabulations from the Current Population Survey, 1999.




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