The Romney-Cotton proposal would be a small and inadequate wage increase: Wage effects in 2025 of the Romney-Cotton and Raise the Wage Act (RTWA) proposals, in 2021 dollars
| Total wage bill increase (full-year, billions) |
Annual increase per affected worker (full-year) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group | Romney-Cotton | RTWA | Romney-Cotton | RTWA |
| Overall | $3.3 | $108.4 | $700 | $3,400 |
| Gender | ||||
| Male | $1.3 | $41.2 | $700 | $3,100 |
| Female | $2.0 | $67.2 | $700 | $3,500 |
| Race or ethnicity | ||||
| White | $1.4 | $52.0 | $600 | $3,200 |
| Black | $0.9 | $20.5 | $800 | $3,600 |
| Hispanic | $0.9 | $27.1 | $800 | $3,500 |
| Asian | $0.1 | $5.0 | $700 | $4,300 |
| Other | $0.1 | $3.8 | $800 | $3,500 |
Notes: Affected workers are those who would receive wage increases as a result of the policy: they include the directly affected (otherwise earning less than the new minimum wage per hour in 2025) and indirectly affected (earning just slightly above the new minimum).
Source: EPI Minimum Wage Simulation Model analysis of the Romney-Cotton proposal and the Raise the Wage Act (RTWA) of 2021.