Report: Minimum Wage Hike Would Aid Job Growth
Increasing the minimum wage by $2 per hour would help create 4,500 new jobs in Massachusetts and boost economic activity in the state by $522 million, according to a new report released by the Economic Policy Institute.
According to the non-profit, non-partisan Washington think tank, raising the minimum wage to $10 per hour would give working families in Massachusetts an additional $824 million that would, in turn, be reinvested into the economy without any cost to state government.
The estimates were presented in the latest issue brief published Tuesday by the organization. A bill filed by Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour unanimously cleared the Committee on Labor and Workforce Development this session that would have provided the first minimum wage hike in Massachusetts in four years that would give the state the highest rate in the country.
Though many lawmakers and unions supported the measure, business groups warned the bill would cripple efforts to stimulate job growth, hurt the prospects of adding jobs for teenagers this summer and put small businesses at an even greater disadvantage to other states and online businesses.
The bill has not yet emerged from the Senate Ways and Means Committee for a vote, and it would appear unlikely to advance further with formal sessions for the year concluded.
The EPI brief noted that in 2011 the real value of the Massachusetts minimum wage was just 1 percent higher than it was in 1973. "Although workers' productivity has helped corporate profits reach record heights during the last four decades, workers' earnings have remained virtually unchanged since 1973," Policy Analyst Mary Gable said in a statement. "Raising the minimum wage in Massachusetts would begin to address the vast disconnect between soaring corporate profits and the lowest-paid workers' wages and give a significant jolt to the state's economy."
Massachusetts currently has the fifth highest minimum wage in the country. Washington has the highest minimum wage at $9.04, while six states and the District of Columbia have higher rates, including Connecticut, Vermont, Oregon, Illinois, and Nevada.
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