New year brings minimum wage hikes for Americans in 14 states

New year brings minimum wage hikes for Americans in 14 states

Eric M. Johnson, REUTERS
POSTED: Friday, January 1, 2016, 3:39 PM

CHICAGO (Reuters) - As the United States marks more than six years without an increase in the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, 14 states and several cities are moving forward with their own increases, with most set to start taking effect on Friday.

California and Massachusetts are highest among the states, both increasing from $9 to $10 an hour, according to an analysis by the National Conference of State Legislatures. At the low end is Arkansas, where the minimum wage is increasing from $7.50 to $8. The smallest increase, a nickel, comes in South Dakota, where the hourly minimum is now $8.55.

The increases come in the wake of a series of "living wage" protests across the country, including a November campaign in which thousands of protesters in 270 cities marched in support of a $15-an-hour minimum wage and union rights for fast food workers. Food service workers make up the largest group of minimum-wage earners, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

With Friday's increases, the new average minimum wage across the 14 affected states rises from $8.50 an hour to just over $9. (For a related graphic, see http://tmsnrt.rs/1O2agQN)

Several cities are going even higher. Seattle is setting a sliding hourly minimum between $10.50 and $13 on Jan. 1, and Los Angeles and San Francisco are enacting similar increases in July, en route to $15 an hour phased in over six years.

Backers say a higher minimum wage helps combat poverty, but opponents worry about the potential impact on employment and company profits.

In 2014, a Democratic-backed congressional proposal to increase the federal minimum wage for the first time since 2009 to $10.10 stalled, as have subsequent efforts by President Barack Obama. More recent proposals by some lawmakers call for a federal minimum wage of up to $15 an hour.

Alan Krueger, an economics professor at Princeton University and former chairman of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, said a federal minimum wage of up to $12 an hour, phased in over five years or so, "would not have a noticeable effect on employment."

Some employers may cut jobs in response to a minimum-wage increase, Krueger said, while others may find hikes allow them to fill job vacancies and reduce turnover, lifting employment but lowering profits.

In recent years, an increasing number of states and municipalities have enacted their own wage floor policies.

Currently, 29 states plus the District of Columbia and about two dozen cities and counties have their minimum wage at levels higher than the federal minimum.

Many are now in the midst of multi-year phase-in plans that will ultimately take them to between $10 and $15 an hour.

The 14 states where increases take effect on Friday are: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New York, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated 2014 federal proposal would have raised the wages of 16.5 million Americans and lifted 900,000 of them out of poverty but would have cost as many as 1 million jobs.

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20160101_Reuters_Report_tagreuterscom2016newsmlKBN 0UF1QA_New_year_brings_minimum_wage_hikes_for_Amer icans_in_14_states.html#tipLXjT3Qjmxd6Cp.99
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1. Texas/Minimum wage
   
   7.25 USD per hour
   Feb 24, 2015

Big Restaurant Demands That The State Freeze Servers' Wages

BY MIRANDA KATZ IN FOOD ON JAN 1, 2016 1:50 PM

http://gothamist.com/attachments/nyc...115_waiter.jpg
(Minerva Studio/Shutterstock)

While the ball was dropping in Times Square last night, the state minimum wage was rising. New York's overall hourly minimum wage went up from $8.75 to $9, and the hourly minimum wage for tipped workers rose from $5.00 to $7.50 — much to the dismay of the New York State Restaurant Association. The restaurant owners lobbying group penned a letter to Governor Cuomo earlier this week demanding that he freeze the tipped wage for five years. The missive comes just a few weeks after the National Restaurant Association filed an appeal with the state Supreme Court, claiming that Cuomo's plan to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour by 2018 is part of a longstanding pattern of discrimination "against the hard working men and women that own New York’s restaurants."

The state Labor Department approved the wage increase for tipped workers in February 2015. Since then, big-shots such as Danny Meyer and Andrew Tarlow have eliminated tipping altogether, upping menu prices to make up for the cost of increasing wages.

The Restaurant Association's letter to Cuomo was attributed to more than 100 anonymous restaurant owners. A spokesman told DNAinfo that he couldn't release the names of signatories because restaurateurs who have taken political stances in the past have received death threats.

"It’s hard to imagine any business giving half of their labor force a 50 percent raise overnight, but that’s the reality the hospitality industry is facing at the moment," New York State Restaurant Association head Melissa Fleischut said in a statement. "This increase has already forced restaurants to close, business owners to cut hours and lay people off, and made owners look to incorporate more tablets at tables; any further increase will just exacerbate these problems."

Meanwhile, some worker advocates are griping that this wage increase is inadequate, and saying that the restaurant industry should do away with tipping system altogether. ROC-United, a workers rights activist group, initially praised New York's increase to the tipped minimum wage, but has since urged the state not to leave tipped workers out of the $15 minimum wage conversation.

The Restaurant Association claims that the industry needs half a decade to adjust to this year's wage increases—for comparison, $5 in 2010 adjusted for inflation was $5.44 in 2015—but it seems unlikely that the governor will oblige. A spokesman for Cuomo told the Daily News, that "the Governor believes those who work full-time should not be condemned to a life of poverty and is proud of the steps we've taken to ensure a fair day's pay for a fair day's work."

http://gothamist.com/2016/01/01/figh...little_guy.php

Congratulations American Workers!