Iowa lawmakers denied raises to tens of thousands of women workers by preempting local minimum wages: Workers who would have been directly affected by increasing the Johnson, Linn, Wapello, Polk, and Lee County minimum wages
| Estimated county workforce | Share of county workforce | Directly affected | Share of group directly affected | Share of county’s affected workers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johnson County ($10.10 by January 2017) | 40,000 | 100.0% | 10,100 | 25.3% | 100.0% |
| Gender | |||||
| Women | 20,100 | 50.3% | 5,700 | 28.4% | 56.4% |
| Men | 19,900 | 49.8% | 4,400 | 22.1% | 43.6% |
| Linn County ($10.25 by January 2019) | 101,600 | 100.0% | 18,400 | 18.1% | 100.0% |
| Gender | |||||
| Women | 48,300 | 47.5% | 9,900 | 20.5% | 53.8% |
| Men | 53,400 | 52.6% | 8,500 | 15.9% | 46.2% |
| Wapello County ($10.10 by 2019) | 13,000 | 100.0% | 2,200 | 16.6% | 100.0% |
| Gender | |||||
| Women | 5,900 | 45.2% | 1,500 | 25.1% | 68.5% |
| Men | 7,100 | 54.8% | 700 | 9.5% | 31.5% |
| Polk County ($10.75 by January 2019) | 252,700 | 100.0% | 38,000 | 15.0% | 100.0% |
| Gender | |||||
| Women | 127,400 | 50.4% | 22,100 | 17.3% | 58.2% |
| Men | 125,300 | 49.6% | 15,900 | 12.7% | 41.8% |
| Lee County ($8.20 by May 2017) | 15,000 | 100.0% | 2,100 | 14.3% | 100.0% |
| Gender | |||||
| Women | 6,000 | 40.1% | 1,300 | 21.0% | 59.0% |
| Men | 9,000 | 59.9% | 900 | 9.8% | 41.0% |
Notes: Estimated workforce describes employed ACS respondents ages 16 and older for whom a valid hourly wage can be determined. Directly affected workers are those that would otherwise have had hourly wages below the specified wage value. Totals may not sum due to rounding.
Extended notes: The smallest geographic unit in the ACS public-use microdata does not uniquely identify Wapello or Lee Counties. The count and shares of affected workers in Wapello County were estimated from the population of workers in Davis, Van Buren, Wapello, Jefferson, Washington, Keokuk, and Mahaska counties, and then scaled to reflect those counties' share of employment in Wapello County using published Census Bureau data on employment in each geography. Similarly, the values for Lee County were estimated from data on workers in Louisa, Des Moines, Henry, and Lee Counties, then scaled using the the Lee County share of employment for those 4 counties.
Sources: Fisher 2016, IPP 2015, and Economic Policy Institute analysis of American Community Survey microdata, 2012–2015.