2:10 What is the current status of the minimum wage in the United States?

• Learn more about the origins of the minimum wage with A history of the federal minimum wage: 85 years later, the minimum wage is far from equitable
• How minimum wage lost its status as a tool of social progress in the U.S.

5:45 What are you proposing for the federal minimum wage?

• Patrick’s brief: Federal Employment Standards as the Foundation of Economic Security: Revisiting Minimum Wage, Just Cause, and Tools to Combat Wage Theft
• Ben’s report: Setting high standards for a federal minimum wage: Raising the wage to two-thirds of the national median wage would lift pay for nearly 40 million workers

9:50 Why two-thirds? Why not 1/2 or 90%? And how would that work exactly?

• Ben’s work on the CA fast food minimum raise impact: Adjusting minimum wages for inflation is a necessary yet modest step toward protecting affordability for low-wage workers.

17:40 What is a living wage, and what does that have to do with the minimum wage?

• Want to know what’s needed to achieve a basic standard of living in your area (or any other area in the U.S.)? Check out one of EPI’s most-used tools—the Family Budget Calculator.
• MIT’s living wage calculator
• Another resource for living wages.

23:10 In the absence of federal action, how are states and localities filling in the gap?

• You can find the minimum wage in states and localities with EPI’s Minimum Wage Tracker.
• Wondering how to approach raising the minimum wage in your state, county, or locality? Check out Holding the line: State solutions for the minimum wage.

27:01 Currently there is a ballot initiative in Oklahoma to raise the minimum wage to $15. How did that come about?

• Hard work deserves a fair wage. SQ 832 would help make that happen
• SQ 832: Minimum wage increase | Information and resources
• Tens of thousands of Oklahomans illegally paid below the minimum wage
• Oklahomans! The minimum wage ballot measure comes to a vote June 16, 2026.

31:52 Why doesn’t the minimum wage cause job losses? How do employers accommodate higher wage standards?

• Minimum wage simulation model technical methodology

36:59 A federal minimum wage increase would partially protect workers against business practices that suppress earnings and cause economic distress. What other policies would help?

• You can’t starve the public sector to excellence
• Holding the line: State solutions to wage theft and payment
• Unions aren’t just good for workers—they benefit communities and democracy

Q&A

Have questions about AI’s impact on the workforce? See our webinar and resources here.

43:40 Oklahoma has successfully used the ballot measure to advance key policy. Why is that?

• The future of democracy rests in OK Supreme Court
• House ‘disappointed’ as Senate blocks bills, leaves Medicaid alone and most vetoes intact
• States revisit rules on citizen initiatives and referendums
• Citizen-led ballot initiatives face growing restrictions

47:50 How would a minimum wage at $20 by 2030 or $25/hr be phased in and what consideration should be given to small businesses?

49:30 What are some state specific analyses we can do to show that our state has capacity to dramatically increase the minimum wage? To what extent can this framework be applied to determine an ideal minimum wage by state (and by county)? Which measure/survey data are you referring to when talking about the “median wage”? Just curious about how we might do a similar comparison to our existing state minimum wage (in CO).

• State of Working America data library
• Colorado median real wage from the State of Working America data library

52:20 Will raising the minimum wage impact Social Security?