From the Economic Policy Institute: Wage growth for low-wage workers has been strongest in states with minimum wage increases
By ELISE GOULD
In 2018, the minimum wage was increased in 13 states and the District of Columbia through legislation or referendum. In eight more states, the minimum wage increased automatically because it is indexed to inflation. These changes came on the heels of other minimum wage increases in many of the same states over the previous few years. In fact, after three years of mostly only indexed minimum wage increases, there was a spate of newly legislated state-level minimum wage increases starting in 2014. When we compare states with any minimum wage change over the last five years with those without any, as shown in the figure below, the association between states with at least one minimum wage change and growth in wages for low-wage workers is quite strong.
Wage growth at the 10th percentile in states with at least one minimum wage increase from 2013 to 2018 was more than 50 percent faster than in states without any minimum wage increases (13.0 percent vs. 8.4 percent). As expected—given women’s greater likelihood of being in low-wage jobs and thus greater likelihood of being helped by minimum wage increases—this result is even stronger for women (13.0 percent vs. 6.0 percent). However, men also experienced much faster 10th-percentile wage growth in states with minimum wage increases than in those without (12.0 percent vs. 8.6 percent).