Published on December 10, 2020
The federal minimum wage — $7.25 per hour — hasn’t changed since 2009, even though the cost of living has risen rapidly. Labor activists long have been asking for a raise in the minimum wage but due to the partisan split between the House and Senate, it seems unlikely there will be a change in the foreseeable future — though President-elect Joe Biden has promised to raise the federal minimum wage to $15.
While the fate of the federal minimum wage remains uncertain, some individual states, cities, counties and companies already have implemented a $15 minimum wage or approved plans that eventually will make the minimum wage $15.
Seattle was the first major city to pass a bill that would increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour. The bill, which went into effect in 2015, made the minimum wage for employers who don’t offer medical benefits to their employees $11 as of April 2015; $12 for small employers (500 employees or fewer) and $13 for large employers as of 2016; $13 for small employers and $15 for large employers as of 2017; $14 for small employers and $15.45 for large employers as of 2018; and $15 for small employers and $16 for large employers as of 2019.
Although some business owners, particularly in the food industry, threatened to leave Seattle amid growing wage requirements, it doesn’t seem that many have followed through. According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of jobs in restaurants and bars had been on the upswing since Seattle’s minimum wage laws went into effect in 2015 (though the coronavirus pandemic has obviously changed this trajectory in 2020).
University of Washington research published in 2018 found that “fewer than one in four employers reported reducing their workforces through cuts in hours or headcount” as a result of the wage hikes.
The University of Washington Minimum Wage Study is led by Jacob Vigdor (Evans School), Jennifer Romich (Social Work), and Mark Long (Evans School).
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Originally written by Gabrielle Olya for Yahoo! News.