A strong minimum wage helps workers support their families, and it can also bolster our economy by increasing the amount workers have to spend at local businesses.
As part of an ongoing statewide discussion about whether to adjust the state’s minimum wage—which has fallen 25% since 1968—the state Senate is debating a bill that would raise the minimum wage to $11 over three years.
MassBudget’s work on the minimum wage provides information about the Value of the Minimum Wage in Massachusetts, Who is Affected by the Minimum Wage, and The Minimum Wage and Job Creation. This week, we are releasing some new and updated minimum wage resources:
- “The Minimum Wage for Tipped Workers” briefly describes how the minimum wage works for workers who regularly earn tips, like waiters and hairdressers. The $2.63 an hour that employers are required to pay these workers hasn’t changed since 1999—and since 1968 the inflation adjusted value of the tipped minimum wage has fallen 58 percent. While tipped workers are required to get the full minimum wage when tips are included, recent studies have found that states with a low “tipped minimum wage” tend to have higher poverty rates for tipped workers.
- A new interactive tool allows you to see that raising the minimum wage to $11 by 2016 would affect roughly 589,000 people. What is more, it shows a detailed breakdown by race, gender, income, education, and more—including the fact that 88% of the people affected would be 20 years old or older.
- “The Regional Impact of a Minimum Wage Increase” looks at how a minimum wage increase would affect people in different areas of the state. We find that substantial numbers of people in every region of the state would see their wages rise, and the effect would be particularly widespread in low-income communities.
Check out all of our work on the minimum wage.
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what an average Mass. legislature salary was in 1968 vs now? I’d love to see that comparison next to min wage graph.
Tips should never be assumed and theoretically requiring the employer to make up the difference seems asking for trouble. The minimum wage should be the same for everyone.