Minimum-wage workers in 22 states are going to see more money in their paychecks in the new year.
Those increases will affect an estimated 9.9 million workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which estimates that those bumped wages will add up to an additional $6.95 billion in pay.
In addition to those 22 states, 38 cities and counties will also increase their minimum wages above state minimums on Jan. 1.
According to the Department of Labor, 20 states will maintain the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
And according to EPI, of the 17.6 million workers earning less than $15 an hour, nearly half live in those 20 states that continue to stick to the federal minimum wage — which has not changed since 2009.
The cost of living, however, has skyrocketed.
The federal minimum wage is a joke. Tie it to the cost of living or something so it stays up-to-date automatically, and politicians can’t use it as a bargaining chip.
It should be tied to local areas. Someone living in the middle of nowhere doesn’t need nearly as much money as someone living in the middle of a city. Tie minimum wage to local inflation, maybe on a county level.
You’re entirely correct. My only concern is that tying the federal minimum wage to a less important standard might encourage employers to manipulate that standard in order to keep wages down. Something like the Cost of Living Index (CLI) is major, and really hard to mess with, especially without having many complex consequences. In my eyes, that gives it some built in security. Plus, existing minimum wage laws (whether they’re state or federal) don’t take location into account.
Still, though, I’m not very knowledgeable about economics, and you raise an important point.