![]() Why minimum wages are a critical tool for achieving racial justice in the U.S. labor market since the start of the current recession now appears to have stalled, leaving Black and Latinx workers with significantly elevated unemployment in the double digits. And the tenuous partial recovery of the U.S. Black and Latinx households today are more likely to report a loss in income and difficulty paying expenses. Indeed, the coronavirus recession demonstrates how persistent disparities in economic security by race and ethnicity are exacerbated in a crisis. Yet those reforms six decades ago are now increasingly unable to address racial income inequality without keeping pace with inflation and economic growth. Importantly, though, reforms in the 1960s turned the minimum wage into a critical tool for decreasing the wage divides between Black and White workers because Black Americans were overrepresented among low-wage workers who were not initially covered by the federal minimum wage. This was the case at its inception in some states in the early 20th century, as a key federal component of the New Deal reforms during the Great Depression, and today, amid the coronavirus recession. The minimum wage is one of the primary tools for raising the wages of low-income workers. Half of Hispanic adults who back the $15 wage also express this view.High school students, union activists, and fast food workers rallying in New York City to demand a $15/hour federal minimum wage, April 2015. A majority of Black adults who favor a $15 standard (55%) say that if there is not sufficient support in Congress for that to pass, congressional leaders should continue to work for a $15 minimum wage even if no minimum wage increase becomes law this year. These views differ by race and ethnicity, as well as by income. More than half of Americans who favor a $15 federal minimum wage (54%) say that if there is not enough congressional support for such an increase this year, Congress should prioritize increasing the wage even if the new wage is significantly less than $15. Related post: When it comes to raising the minimum wage, most of the action is in cities and states, not Congress What should happen if Congress lacks support for a $15 minimum wage? Similarly, Republicans who live in areas where the state minimum wage is $12 or higher are slightly more likely than those living in places where the $7.25 federal minimum wage applies to say they favor raising the federal minimum to $15 an hour (32% vs. Still, a majority of lower-income Republicans (54%) say they oppose such an increase. Lower-income Republicans (46%) are much more likely than middle- (23%) and upper-income Republicans (18%) to say they favor raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. While Democrats are largely united in their support for increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, Republicans’ views differ by household income. About seven-in-ten adults in these places (69%) favor raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, compared with 59% of those living in places with a minimum wage of less than $12 an hour. People living in areas where the state-level minimum wage is currently $12 or higher are more likely than others to say they favor a federal increase to $15 an hour. adults.īlack adults in particular stand out for their support: 89% favor raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, including 73% who support the idea strongly. Support for raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour is extensive across most demographic groups, according to the survey, which was conducted among 5,109 U.S. Only one-in-ten Americans in all say that federal minimum wage should remain at the current level of $7.25 an hour. A narrow majority of these Americans (54%) say leaders should focus on passing an increase to the wage “even if it may be significantly less than $15 an hour,” while 43% say the priority should be to work to raise the hourly minimum wage to $15 “even if no increase makes it into law this year.”Īmong those who oppose raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, a substantial majority (71%) say the federal minimum wage should be increased, but that the standard should be less than $15 an hour those who hold this view account for 27% of the overall public. Among the public, those who back a $15 minimum wage are fairly divided over how to approach the issue if there is insufficient support in Congress for an increase to that amount this year.
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