Westchester NOW

WHO WOULD BENEFIT FROM A MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE?

More than one million New Yorkers would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage.

Minimum wage legislation that increases the state minimum from $5.15 to $6.75 would benefit over 520,000 New Yorkers. Due to likely spillover effects, an additional 530,000 people, those earning from $6.75 to $7.99, would also gain. These one million beneficiaries of a minimum wage increase represent 14% of New York State employment.

Minimum-wage earners are poor adults, not middle-class teenagers.

Contrary to a popular misconception, over ¾ (79%) of the new legislation's beneficiaries would be adults, not teenagers. A high percentage of minimum wage earners are the main breadwinners for their families, and 61% of the likely beneficiaries are women.

WHY DO WE NEED A HIGHER MINIMUM WAGE NOW? Over the past decade, poverty in New York has gotten worse.

The number of working poor families in the state rose 66% (to 262,000) between the late 1980s and the late 1990s. The median family income in the state increased just 1.8% in real terms during the 1990s. That is, the typical New York family made less than 2 percent more in 2000 than they had 10 years earlier.

SHOULD WE WORRY A MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE WILL COST JOBS? Increases in the minimum wage elsewhere have not cost jobs.

12 states plus the District of Columbia already have minimum wages above the current $5.15 federal level. These states include: Connecticut, Massachusetts, California, Washington, Delaware, and, as of January 1, 2004, Illinois.

For further information, go to www.515isnotenough.org. If you'd like to get involved, leave a message on the NOW phone.

Fact sheet prepared by Fiscal Policy Institute and Working Families Party, based on research by Fiscal Policy Institute.

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