As wages continue to stagnate across the country, many are seeking government policy as a method to increase their wages. Politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have championed the Fight for $15 movement to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. The movement has been active in North Carolina for a while now, but it has just been given a degree of legitimization with the N.C. House of Representatives introducing a bill to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2024.
A $15 minimum wage in North Carolina could help bring economic justice to those who have been stripped of it for so long. Despite having cities with relatively high costs of living like Raleigh and Charlotte, the minimum wage in N.C. remains one of the lowest in the nation at $7.25 — the federal minimum wage. The state minimum wage has been this way since 2009, when the federal minimum wage became $7.25.
Workers are finding now that this wage is simply unsustainable for them to live adequate lives in today’s economy. When adjusting for inflation, the actual amount people are earning is less now than it was for workers in the late 1950s-80s. Actual wages are far smaller now than what they were at the peak of the country’s middle-class boom in the 60s. In 1968, the inflation-adjusted minimum wage was $11.76 per hour, far above the current minimum.
This period of wage stagnation comes at a time when worker productivity has been skyrocketing. Over the course of a 44-year period from 1973-2017, worker productivity increased by about 77%. Hourly pay paled in comparison, growing at a rate of about 12.4% over the same period. This disparity between worker productivity and hourly pay is a direct result of trickle-down economics failing to help the working class. Instead of reaping their rewards for hard work, the working class saw their earnings consolidated by the wealthy class.
An increased minimum wage could have significant effects on beginning to reverse the years of disparity workers in the United States have seen. Workers cannot continue to be put on the backburner for wage increases any longer.
The biggest case studies on the effects of a $15 minimum wage originated from the minimum-wage policy introduced in Seattle. Researchers at both the University of Washington and the University of California Berkeley have critically analyzed the effects of raising the minimum wage to $15. The Berkeley study, while limited in its scope, found that the policy did lead to increased wages without any surges in unemployment.
The University of Washington study was much more negative in its assessment, finding that Seattle’s minimum wage increase led to higher unemployment and decreased working hours. However, follow-up studies have disproved the findings of UW’s paper, explaining that the higher rate of unemployment was not caused by increasing wages.
While the results of the study may not apply to all cities because of varying demographics and labor markets, studies have shown that an increase in wages is a step in the right direction. Raising the minimum wage will act as the rising tide we need to lift the proverbial boats of many Americans.
