Min Wage

Front 1

How would increase in minimum wage to $12 by 2020 affect workers’ earnings? (stat)

Back 1

Over the phase-in period of the increases, affected workers would receive nearly $80 billion in increased wages. Once the increase is fully phased-in, the average affected worker would earn roughly $2,300 more each year than she does today (assuming no change in the number of work hours).

Front 2

Age, Sex, Race Demographics of workers affected by $12 by 2020

Back 2

• The average age of affected workers is 36 years old.
• About 66% are 25 years old or older
• 15.3 percent workers are age 55 and older;
• 10.7 percent are teens.
• 55.9 percent are women.
• more than one-third of black and Hispanic workers receiving a raise.

Front 3

Work and Family Demographics of workers affected by $12 by 2020

Back 3

• 57.4 percent work full time, nearly half
• 45.1 percent have at least some college experience,
• 27.7 percent have children.
• 36.5 percent of working single parents
• 40 percent of working single mothers.
• on average, the primary breadwinners for their family, earning 54.3 percent of their family’s total income.

Front 4

History of Raising wage and purchasing power erosion

Back 4

Since its inception in 1938, the federal minimum wage has been adjusted through legislated increases nine times—from a nominal (non-inflation-adjusted) value of 25 cents per hour in 1938 to the current $7.25, where it has remained since 2009. These increases have been fairly irregular, varying in size and with differing lengths of time between increases. Yet aside from a few very brief deflationary periods in the postwar era, prices have consistently risen year after year. Each year that the minimum wage remains unchanged, its purchasing power slowly erodes until policymakers enact an increase. This haphazard maintenance of the wage floor has meant that low-wage workers of different generations or in different decades have been protected by significantly different wage standards.

Front 5

History of raising the min wage in relation to inflation

Back 5

As the figure shows, in the first increase following the end of World War II, the minimum wage rose rather dramatically in real terms, nearly doubling overnight in 1950, followed by regular increases that kept pace with rising labor productivity until the late 1960s. The minimum wage peaked in inflation-adjusted value in 1968, when it was equal to $9.54 in 2014 dollars. Increases in the 1970s essentially held the value of the minimum wage in place despite higher inflation driven by oil and food price shocks. Yet in the 1980s, as inflation remained elevated, the minimum wage was left to deteriorate to 1950s levels. Subsequent increases in the 1990s and late 2000s were not large enough to undo the erosion that took place in the 1980s. As of 2014, the federal minimum wage was worth 24 percent less than in 1968.

Front 6

Why eliminate the Tipped minimum wage

Back 6

Since 1991, the federal subminimum tipped minimum wage has been frozen at $2.13. The tips that supplement that subminimum wage are unstable and unreliable sources of income for workers because they vary from shift to shift and season to season. Tipped workers are two times more likely to live below the federal poverty line than the general workforce, and more than 46 percent of tipped workers receive federal assistance. The $12 by 2020 proposal gradually phases out the subminimum tipped wage, giving these workers much‐needed economic stability.

Front 7

Raise the Wage

Back 7

Introduced 4/30/15

• Increase the national minimum wage from $7.25 to $12.00 per hour by the year 2020, by first to $8 an hour, followed by $1 annual increases for the following five years.
• Index future annual increases to the median wage starting in the year 2021
• Eliminate the tipped minimum wage gradually by raising the cash wage from the current $2.13 per hour to match the regular minimum wage, first to 3.15 and hour with Subsequent annual adjustments of the wage increase, according to a specified formula, shall ensure that it remains equal to the wage in effect under FLSA for other employees.