National News

Contact:  Steve Copley
Little Rock, AR  
Phone: 501-626-9220

No Matter How You Look At It, the Minimum Wage is Much Too Low

If the current minimum wage had kept up with inflation since its peak in 1968, the federal minimum wage would now be $10.75 an hour. And if the minimum wage had grown along with workers' productivity, it would be as high as $17.19 today. Also, today's low-wage workers are older and better educated than in the past.

Read Report:

Jul 23 2013
No Matter How You Look At It, the Minimum Wage is Much Too Low
Center for Economic and Policy Research

Consider the Source: 100 Years of Broken-Record Opposition to the Minimum Wage

In her Congressional testimony from 1959, Eleanor Roosevelt noted the repetitive quality of objections raised by minimum wage opponents over the previous five decades. More than 50 years later, it appears that nothing has changed.
Mar 31 2013
Consider the Source: 100 Years of Broken-Record Opposition to the Minimum Wage
National Employment Law Project and Cry Wolf Project

Big Business, Corporate Profits, and the Minimum Wage

America’s low-wage economy is marked by two extremes. On the one hand, workers earning at or near the minimum wage are seeing the real value of their paychecks diminish steadily over time, as the cost of living increases while their wages remain stagnant. After nearly half a century of neglect, today’s federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is decades out of date. In terms of purchasing power, its value is 30 percent lower today than it was in 1968.

On the other hand, many corporations are posting record-breaking profits. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that, after sinking from 2007 to 2009, corporate profits had successfully caught up to their pre- recession peak by the beginning of 2010 – and that by the third quarter of 2011, total profits for U.S. corporations reached a new record high of $1.97 trillion.
Jul 19 2012
Big Business, Corporate Profits, and the Minimum Wage
National Employment Law Project

Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC) National Diners' Guide 2012

New National Diners’ Guide from Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC) spotlights wage, benefits and promotion practices of the 150 most popular restaurants. Lists "responsible restaurants where you can eat knowing that your server can afford to pay the rent and your cook isn’t working while sick."

Download the Diners’ Guide, the Consumer Toolkit for Spreading the Word, and Tip Cards about the Diners’ Guide to hand out to restaurant owners and workers when you go out to eat.
Dec 1 2011
ROC National Diners’ Guide 2012

Local Living Wage Ordinances and Coverage

See chart with summary of local living wage ordinances and links. Total: 123 as of 12/6/10, not including repealed.
Dec 6 2010
Local Living Wage Ordinances and Coverage
National Employment Law Project

Raising the Minimum Wage in Hard Times

Updated / Summary
  • The federal minimum wage was enacted during the Great Depression to promote economic recovery.
  • The long-term fall in worker buying power is a key reason we are in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
  • Raising the minimum wage boosts consumer purchasing power and economic recovery.
  • Raising the minimum wage does not increase unemployment in good times or bad.
  • Raise the floor to lift the economy.
    • Holly Sklar
    Oct 27 2010
    application/pdf iconRaising Minimum Wage in Hard Times
    Let Justice Roll

    Research Shows Raising the Minimum Wage Does Not Increase Unemployment

    Updated
    Raising the minimum wage does not increase unemployment in good times or bad.

    Extensive research refutes the claim that increasing the minimum wage causes increased unemployment and business closures.
    Holly Sklar
    Jul 29 2010
    application/pdf iconResearch Shows Raising the Minimum Wage Does Not Increase Unemployment
    Let Justice Roll

    Raise the Minimum Wage to $10 in 2010

    Summary

    • Recent minimum wage raises are too little, too late.
    • The minimum wage is a poverty wage instead of an anti-poverty wage.
    • The minimum wage sets the wage floor. A low minimum wage institutionalizes an increasingly low-wage workforce.
    • A low minimum wage reinforces a growing gap between haves and have-nots.
    • Workers are also consumers. The long-term fall in worker buying power is one reason we are in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
    • Raising the minimum wage lifts workers, business and the economy.
    • $10 in 2010 will break the cycle of too little, too late raises.
    • $10 in 2010 will make up ground lost in minimum wage buying power since 1968.

    Holly Sklar
    Jul 22 2009
    application/pdf iconRaise the Minimum Wage to $10 in 2010
    Let Justice Roll

    States and Cities Minimum Wage Chart

    A chart of all the states and cities with a minimum wage above the current federal minimum wage.
    Jul 14 2009
    application/pdf iconState and Cities with Minimum Wages Above Federal Level
    Let Justice Roll
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