The Romney-Cotton proposal will only lift pay for 3 percent of the workforce: Number and shares of workers who would receive pay increases in 2025 under the Romney-Cotton and Raise the Wage Act (RTWA) proposals
| Total affected (millions) |
Share of group affected (percent) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group | Romney-Cotton | RTWA | Romney-Cotton | RTWA |
| Overall | 4.9 | 32.2 | 3.2% | 21.2% |
| Gender | ||||
| Male | 1.9 | 13.2 | 2.4% | 16.9% |
| Female | 3.0 | 19.0 | 4.1% | 25.8% |
| Race or ethnicity | ||||
| White | 2.3 | 16.5 | 2.6% | 18.4% |
| Black | 1.1 | 5.7 | 6.1% | 31.3% |
| Hispanic | 1.2 | 7.8 | 3.9% | 26.0% |
| Asian | 0.1 | 1.2 | 1.1% | 11.7% |
| Other | 0.2 | 1.1 | 4.1% | 25.6% |
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.