INCREASE THE MINIMUM WAGE
The Justice Movement advocates for an immediate increase in the national minimum wage to at least $15 per hour, with periodic cost-of-living increases so that the minimum wage never falls behind as it has for decades under Democratic and Republican leadership.
The Record of Republicans and Democrats
The federal minimum wage (now $7.25 per hour) has not been increased for more than ten years, during Democratic and Republican administrations and during Republican- and Democratic-controlled Congresses.
A full-time minimum wage worker now earns a whopping 18% less than what such a worker earned in 2009, after adjusting for rising costs of living ($15,080 annually in 2021 compared with $18,458 in 2009). A minimum wage worker in 1968 earned, in inflation-adjusted terms, 46% more than today’s minimum wage![84]
The failure to sustain the value of the minimum wage paid to working people is particularly egregious when considering that, from 1979–2020, productivity has increased by 61.8%, yet hourly pay for workers has increased by only 17.5%, and, as noted, the minimum wage has lost significant value.[85]
At the same time, the disparity between pay for CEOs and pay for typical workers has skyrocketed. In 1965, the ratio of CEO-to-typical-worker compensation was 21-to-1; in 1989, it was 61-to-1. In 2020, the disparity in pay between CEOs and typical workers was 351-to-1.[86]
The failure to raise the minimum wage by the ruling duopolist parties has been shameful.
Raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2025 would lift 3.7 million people out of poverty and would raise the wages of 32 million people (21% of the workforce). “Minimum wage increases affect adults in their career-building years who are helping to support their families––with women disproportionately benefiting from a pay boost.”[87]
As Ralph Nader has noted, “the same corporate establishment who declared through the National Association of Manufacturers in 1937 that the minimum wage would be ‘a step in the direction of communism, bolshevism, fascism and Nazism’ has resorted to spewing out every broken-record argument in the book [in opposition to increasing the minimum wage].”[88] However, contrary to the arguments against an increase in the minimum wage, such increases do not lead to significant job losses[89] and they actually bolster consumer spending.[90]
A full-time minimum wage worker now earns a whopping 18% less than what such a worker earned in 2009, after adjusting for rising costs of living ($15,080 annually in 2021 compared with $18,458 in 2009). A minimum wage worker in 1968 earned, in inflation-adjusted terms, 46% more than today’s minimum wage![84]
The failure to sustain the value of the minimum wage paid to working people is particularly egregious when considering that, from 1979–2020, productivity has increased by 61.8%, yet hourly pay for workers has increased by only 17.5%, and, as noted, the minimum wage has lost significant value.[85]
At the same time, the disparity between pay for CEOs and pay for typical workers has skyrocketed. In 1965, the ratio of CEO-to-typical-worker compensation was 21-to-1; in 1989, it was 61-to-1. In 2020, the disparity in pay between CEOs and typical workers was 351-to-1.[86]
The failure to raise the minimum wage by the ruling duopolist parties has been shameful.
Raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2025 would lift 3.7 million people out of poverty and would raise the wages of 32 million people (21% of the workforce). “Minimum wage increases affect adults in their career-building years who are helping to support their families––with women disproportionately benefiting from a pay boost.”[87]
As Ralph Nader has noted, “the same corporate establishment who declared through the National Association of Manufacturers in 1937 that the minimum wage would be ‘a step in the direction of communism, bolshevism, fascism and Nazism’ has resorted to spewing out every broken-record argument in the book [in opposition to increasing the minimum wage].”[88] However, contrary to the arguments against an increase in the minimum wage, such increases do not lead to significant job losses[89] and they actually bolster consumer spending.[90]
Public Support for Increasing the Minimum Wage to $15 Per Hour
As is so often the case, corporate interests have prevailed in preventing an increase in the minimum wage, even though 62% of the people in the United States favor it. In a Pew Research poll, among Democrats or those leaning-Democrat, 87% favored increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour and 72% of Republicans or those leaning-Republican opposed such an increase.[91] In a Hill/Harris poll, the results were similar: 64% of registered voters supported the increase to $15 per hour, with only 36% of voters opposing the increase. Eighty-nine percent of Democrats and 67 percent of independents supported the increase, while 64% of Republicans opposed it.[92]
[84] David Cooper, et al., “Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025 would lift the pay of 32 million workers,” Economic Policy Institute (March 9, 2021), available at https://www.epi.org/publication/raising-the-federal-minimum-wage-to-15-by-2025-would-lift-the-pay-of-32-million-workers/ (“Cooper”).
[85] “The Productivity-Pay Gap,” Economic Policy Institute (August 2021), available at https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/.
[86] Lawrence Mishel and Jori Kandra, “CEO pay has skyrocketed 1,322% since 1978 – CEOS were paid 351 times as much as a typical worker in 2020,” Economic Policy Institute, available at https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-pay-in-2020/#:~:text= In%202020%2C%20the%20ratio%20of,%2Dto%2D1%20in%201989.
[87] Id.
[88] “Ralph Nader: Give workers a raise,” USA Today (Op-ed) (March 18, 2014), available at https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/03/18/ralph-nader-minimum-wage-hike-column/6540579/.
[89] Cooper; Paul J. Wolfson and Dale Belman, “15 Years of Research on U.S. Employment and the Minimum Wage” (Hanover, NH: Tuck School of Business, 2016), available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2705499; Doruk Cengiz and others, “The Effect of Minimum Wages on Low-Wage Jobs,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 134 (3) (2019): 1405–1454, available at https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjz014.
[90] “A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago estimates that a $1 raise for a minimum wage worker translates to an additional $2,080 in consumer spending by their household over the course of a year.” “Small Businesses Get a Boost From a $15 Minimum Wage” Center for American Progress (February 25, 2021), available at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/small-businesses-get-boost-15-minimum-wage/#:~:text=A%20study%20by%20the%20Federal,the%20 course%20of%20a%20year.
[91] Amina Dunn, “Most Americans support a $15 federal minimum wage,” Pew Research Center (April 22, 2021), available at https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/04/22/most-americans-support-a-15-federal-minimum-wage/.
[92] “Poll: 64 percent support increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025,” The Hill (February 3, 2021), available at https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/537217-poll-64-percent-support-increasing-the-federal-minimum-wage-to.
[85] “The Productivity-Pay Gap,” Economic Policy Institute (August 2021), available at https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/.
[86] Lawrence Mishel and Jori Kandra, “CEO pay has skyrocketed 1,322% since 1978 – CEOS were paid 351 times as much as a typical worker in 2020,” Economic Policy Institute, available at https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-pay-in-2020/#:~:text= In%202020%2C%20the%20ratio%20of,%2Dto%2D1%20in%201989.
[87] Id.
[88] “Ralph Nader: Give workers a raise,” USA Today (Op-ed) (March 18, 2014), available at https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/03/18/ralph-nader-minimum-wage-hike-column/6540579/.
[89] Cooper; Paul J. Wolfson and Dale Belman, “15 Years of Research on U.S. Employment and the Minimum Wage” (Hanover, NH: Tuck School of Business, 2016), available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2705499; Doruk Cengiz and others, “The Effect of Minimum Wages on Low-Wage Jobs,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 134 (3) (2019): 1405–1454, available at https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjz014.
[90] “A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago estimates that a $1 raise for a minimum wage worker translates to an additional $2,080 in consumer spending by their household over the course of a year.” “Small Businesses Get a Boost From a $15 Minimum Wage” Center for American Progress (February 25, 2021), available at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/small-businesses-get-boost-15-minimum-wage/#:~:text=A%20study%20by%20the%20Federal,the%20 course%20of%20a%20year.
[91] Amina Dunn, “Most Americans support a $15 federal minimum wage,” Pew Research Center (April 22, 2021), available at https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/04/22/most-americans-support-a-15-federal-minimum-wage/.
[92] “Poll: 64 percent support increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025,” The Hill (February 3, 2021), available at https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/537217-poll-64-percent-support-increasing-the-federal-minimum-wage-to.
