2014 - Minimum Wage

An article I wrote as park of my coursework at SUNY New Paltz.

According to the latest Quinnipiac University poll, New Yorkers are overwhelmingly in support of raising the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour.

The poll found that 78 percent of New Yorkers support the increase while 20 percent oppose it and 2 percent have no opinion. Republicans support the increase with 53 percent while Democrats support with 91 percent.

It’s not just a yes or no question. Should the decision be made to increate the minimum wage, the next step is to determine by how much it should be raised.

Eight percent of New Yorkers are in favor of keeping it under $8.50, a little over one third believe it should be exactly $8.50 and more than half believe it should be more than $8.50.

It is a common theory that raising the minimum wage would result in employers reducing the number of people they hire. According to the poll, most demographics of the people surveyed were split on this issue, the only standouts being that 59 percent of Republicans believe there would be an effect while only 30 percent of Democrats share this view.

The Democratic Party believes that raising the pay rate would help lift thousands of Americans out of poverty while Republicans argue that these policies keep people in minimum wage jobs and the Democratic focus on the minimum wage proves that the President's domestic program has kept the economy in a stalled state, according to CNN.

For a single person under the age of 65, the poverty threshold is $11,945. At $7.25 per hour, the annual income of a person working full-time at New York’s current minimum wage is just $15,080—barely over the poverty line.

So who does this effect?

Nationally, contrary to stereotypes, the overwhelming majority of low-wage workers are not teens but adults and they contribute a substantial portion of their households’ incomes. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, three quarters of minimum wage earners are 20 or older.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics also provided the following minimum wage demographical information about gender, race/ethnicity, education, marital status, full- and part-time status and occupation (among others):

Among workers who are paid hourly rates, about 5 percent of women have wages at or below the prevailing federal minimum, compared to men who are at about 3 percent.

The percentage of hourly paid workers with wages at or below the federal minimum wage does not vary much among major race and ethnicity groups. About 5 percent of Black workers, 4 percent of White workers and Hispanic or Latino workers, and 3 percent of Asian workers earn the federal minimum wage or less.

Among hourly paid workers age 16 and older, about 10 percent of those without a high school diploma earn the federal minimum wage or less, compared to about 4 percent of those who have a high school diploma (with no college) and about 2 percent of college graduates.

Of those paid at an hourly wage, never married workers, who tend to be young, are more likely (8 percent) than married workers (2 percent) to earn the federal minimum wage or less.

About 10 percent of part-time workers (persons who usually work fewer than 35 hours per week) are paid the federal minimum wage or less, compared to about 2 percent of full-time workers.

And finally, the occupations themselves. Among major occupational groups, the highest percentage of hourly paid workers earning at or below the federal minimum wage is in service occupations, at about 11 percent. Almost two-thirds of workers earning the minimum wage or less are employed in service occupations, mostly in food preparation and serving-related jobs.

Because these national trends are reflected in New York State’s own statistics, it is likely that when the time comes to vote on the issue of minimum wage in New York State, there will be tremendous support in favor of an increase.