Raising the minimum wage is an important and effective strategy for reducing poverty particularly given the erosion of the purchasing power of the state wage since it was last raised in 2009. In New Mexico, approximately 112,000 workers are earning the current state minimum wage of $7.50. In January, New Mexico lawmakers should act to raise the minimum wage to $10 per hour by 2018. While this increase should not be considered a living wage, thousands of families would benefit.
There will probably be a proposal to raise the state’s minimum wage to $10 an hour in the 2016 legislative session. That would be the first minimum wage increase for the whole state since the present minimum wage of $7.50 took effect in January of 2009. This report assumes an increase in two steps, to $8.50 an hour in 2017 and to $10 an hour in 2018. In 2018, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), there will be about 771,000 workers statewide making an hourly wage in New Mexico. The EPI estimates that 112,000 workers would be directly helped by raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour. An additional 79,000 workers would be indirectly affected – their wages would rise due to spillover effects from raising the wage to $10. The total number of workers affected would be 191,000 or almost 25 percent of hourly workers. This report describes the characteristics of these low-wage workers and looks at the EPI’s estimates of the wage impacts of raising the state’s minimum wage.
Inaction by Congress and state legislatures has led many cities and counties to adopt a local
minimum wage. We show that a $15 county minimum wage, phased in by 2020, would raise the
incomes of at least 19,300 workers in Johnson County and 24,300 in Linn County; the majority
would be full-time workers over age 20, and many would have families. This in turn would
increase spending in local retail and service establishments, boosting the local economy
The Massachusetts economy is stronger when all working families can make ends meet. Unfortunately, since the 1970s, wages have generally stopped growing with the economy and many working families find it difficult to pay for basic needs. As shown in the graph below, hourly wages grew in tandem with productivity during the late 1940’s to the early 1970’s. During this period economic gains were broadly shared by the very workers who helped create this growth. Yet, after 1973, while productivity continued to grow, wages for most workers did not.
A measure now before the New Hampshire legislature seeks to strengthen the minimum wage and to begin to build an economy that works for everyone in the Granite State. More specifically, HB 1403 would raise New Hampshire’s minimum wage in two steps: from $7.25 to $8.25 per hour on January 1, 2015 and to $9.00 per hour on January 1, 2016. The measure would also require automatic annual cost of living adjustments, based on the Consumer Price Index, beginning in 2017.
This paper examines the proposed increase, beginning with a brief review of New Hampshire’s current minimum wage and then exploring how that wage compares to historical minimum wage levels, key standards of need, and other states’ wage floors. It next provides estimates of the number of New Hampshire workers who would be affected by the proposal and discusses some of its broader economic consequences. It concludes that raising New Hampshire’s minimum wage could help working families, local businesses, and the New Hampshire economy as a whole.