Who makes the minimum wage? Aren’t most minimum wage workers teenagers and part time workers? According to 2002 Census Bureau data 75% of workers affected by the minimum wage in Washington are over age 20. Nearly 60% of workers are…
Who makes the minimum wage? Aren’t most minimum wage workers teenagers and part time workers? According to 2002 Census Bureau data 75% of workers affected by the minimum wage in Washington are over age 20. Nearly 60% of workers are…
In November of 1998 Washingtonians voted overwhelmingly in favor of increasing Washington’s minimum wage from $4.90 per hour to $6.50 per hour over a two-year period. The law also requires annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) every year thereafter. In January 2003,…
Why raise the minimum wage? Because working families in Washington need it. The primary impetus to increase the minimum wage is to enable people who work full time to earn their way out of poverty. Current minimum wage workers are…
The Economic Opportunity Institute prepared this rebuttal in October 1998 in response to the position papers opposing Initiative 688 authored by the National Federation of Independent Business/Washington (NFIB) and the Washington Restaurant Association (WRA). [This rebuttal was prepared in October…
Opponents of the proposed increase in the minimum wage assert that raising the minimum wage will result in lost jobs and lost job opportunities. This is an old argument which may correspond with neoclassical economic theory, but which is not…
Initiative 688, the Paycheck Protection Act, is a ballot measure in Washington State that will increase the minimum wage to $5.70 per hour on January 1, 1999 and to $6.50 per hour on January 1, 2000. Thereafter, the minimum wage…
