CPA News Releases, Advisories, and Editorials

States Lead on Minimum Wage — As Congress stumbles, progressives lead in the states

Washington, D.C. ﾖ As Congress stands on the sidelines, minimum wage legislation is racing across the states.

Yesterday, Minnesota became the seventh state in two years to increase the minimum wage, and similar legislation has been introduced in a dozen other states. By contrast, the U.S. Senate rejected a minimum wage increase in March by a vote of 49 to 46, mostly along party lines.

But thanks to the states, a higher minimum wage is becoming standard policy in the U.S. Sixteen states now set a minimum wage greater than the federal level of $5.15 per hour. By this fall, at least 43 percent of Americans will live in jurisdictions with a minimum wage of $6.00 or more.

“The minimum wage is a hot issue in the states,” said Tim McFeeley, Executive Director of the Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA). “Progressives have realized that Americans strongly support a higher minimum wage.”

In November 2004, voters in both Florida and Nevada overwhelmingly approved constitutional amendments to increase the minimum wage to $6.15, with automatic cost-of-living increases. 71 percent favored the increase in Florida; 68 percent voted yes in Nevada.

In addition to Minnesota, legislatures in New Jersey and Maryland adopted higher minimum wages earlier this year. New York, Rhode Island, Maine, and the District of Columbia also increased their minimum wages in 2004.

“Legislators find it very easy to endorse an increase,” said McFeeley, whose organization promotes progressive policy across the states. “The federal minimum wage is not adjusted for inflation, and it has not been increased since 1997. If it had kept pace with the federal Consumer Price Index (CPI-W) since 1997, the minimum wage would be almost exactly $6.15 per hour today, the level adopted by many states.”

ﾓSadly, the current federal minimum wage leaves millions of Americans in poverty,” McFeeley noted. “An individual working full-time at the minimum wage of $5.15 per hour earns about $10,700 per year ﾖ $2,130 below the 2005 poverty line for a family of two, and $5,390 below the poverty line for a family of three.”

According to McFeeley, the movement to raise the minimum wage is one of many issues on which states have taken the lead while Congress lags behind, ranging from individual rights and civil liberties to economic security and medical care.

While this trend appears to conflict with the national mood, it is actually consistent with the results of the 2004 election in which voters favored Republicans at the federal level but preferred Democrats in the states. Before November, Republicans controlled both houses of 21 legislatures, Democrats controlled 17, and 11 were split between the parties. Now Republicans and Democrats each control 20 legislatures, and nine are split. (Nebraskaﾒs unicameral legislature is nonpartisan.)

“Our national and state governments are moving in opposite directions,” McFeeley said. “By fulfilling their role as ‘laboratories of democracy,’ states are proving that progressive policies are both feasible and popular, offering powerful ammunition for future national political battles.

ﾓFor progressives, hope is in the states.”

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The Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA) is the nation’s only nonpartisan organization working to strengthen the capacity of state legislators to lead and achieve progressive change. CPA empowers state legislators by providing values-based leadership development programs, distributing user-friendly policy tools on a wide variety of issues, and building a strong, coordinated network of legislators across the states.

For more information contact Policy Director Bernie Horn at 202-956-5135, email [email protected], or visit www.stateaction.org.