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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 will soon begin debating a bill that would raise the
minimum wage to $11 over three years.
"While our economy has become increasingly
productive, wages for middle and low income workers have been stagnant and the
value of the minimum wage has declined," said Noah Berger, President of the
Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. "Because the value of the minimum wage
hasn't kept pace with inflation, a full-time minimum wage worker now makes
$5,000 a year less than in 1968--even though our economy is much more
productive. When too many of our working people don't make enough to pay for
basic necessities, it hurts those workers and their families--and the reduced
demand for goods and services harms local businesses as well."
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.
Today,
we are releasing a new resource, "The Minimum Wage for Tipped Workers,"
which 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.
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