On February 8, 2022, activists demonstrated in Washington, D.C., in assist of a $15 hourly minimal wage and ideas for restaurant employees.
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The federal minimal wage just lately celebrated a brand new anniversary. However for affected employees, that is probably not something to have fun.
The federal minimal wage has stood at $7.25 an hour for 15 years.
On the marketing campaign path, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris just lately prompt that ought to change.
“Whereas I am president, we’ll proceed to combat for America’s working households, together with elevating the minimal wage and eliminating the tip tax for service and hospitality employees,” Harris stated throughout an Aug. 10 marketing campaign cease in Nevada.
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Many states enact minimal hourly wages which are increased than the federal minimal wage. Nonetheless, 20 states have wages no increased than the federal stage, in line with the Enterprise Group for a Truthful Minimal Wage. They embody Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
The federal minimal wage for tipped employees is $2.13 an hour, offered their ideas carry them as much as the federal minimal wage of $7.25 an hour. Michigan just lately grew to become the primary state in additional than 4 a long time to eradicate the minimal wage for tipped employees.
Harris didn’t say how excessive she wished to lift the minimal wage, however she praised states which have raised it to not less than $15 an hour.
The Harris marketing campaign didn’t reply to CNBC’s request for remark.
Congressional Democrats are attempting to lift the federal minimal wage to $15 an hour in 2021 as a part of a broader COVID-19 reduction package deal. Nonetheless, these efforts failed after it was decided that the change couldn’t be integrated into laws dealt with by a one-party majority.
Throughout a 2020 debate, then-President Donald Trump expressed issues about whether or not elevating the federal wage threshold would harm small companies.
“How do you assist your small companies while you power wages?” Trump stated throughout the 2020 debate. “Once you try this, what is going to occur, and has been proven to occur, is these small companies lay off quite a lot of their staff.”
Trump’s marketing campaign didn’t reply to CNBC’s request for remark.
A CNBC survey earlier this yr discovered {that a} majority of small enterprise house owners (61%) assist elevating the state’s minimal wage, however half stated the change might make it troublesome for them to pay employees who’re crucial to their companies .
Holly Sklar, chief government of advocacy group Truthful Minimal Wage, stated an usually neglected level within the minimal wage debate was the hyperlink between increased wages and better client buying energy.
“Once you lose the buying energy of the minimal wage, which means you are dropping the buying energy of your clients,” Sklar stated.
As soon as employees get the next minimal wage, they are going to be extra more likely to spend the cash, which is able to assist companies, she stated.
Ben Zippeler, senior economist on the Financial Coverage Institute, a suppose tank in Washington, D.C. that gives financial analysis, stated elevating the present federal minimal wage would assist low-wage employees who’re struggling to make a residing and really feel financially safe.
“The minimal wage has principally misplaced 29, 30 % of its buying energy over the past 15 years simply because Congress did not renew it,” Zipperer stated.
Zipperer stated elevating the minimal wage threshold to $15 an hour would improve the incomes of about 20 million employees. This consists of low-wage employees, whose hourly wages could also be barely above the federal minimal wage threshold.
“Modifications in wages do not essentially result in enormous modifications in employment,” Zippeler stated.
“Once you increase wages in a specific office, it turns into simpler to recruit and retain employees,” he stated.
Some corporations, corresponding to Goal and Walmart, have set increased minimal wage thresholds at $15 and $14 an hour, respectively, in response to a decent retail labor market.
Nonetheless, advocates hope for broader modifications on the nationwide stage.
“We stay up for supporting efforts to lift the minimal wage within the subsequent White Home and the subsequent Congress and making the case that this can be a superb enterprise case,” Sklar stated.
