The Economic Policy Institute analyzed inflation-adjusted earnings from hourly wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses and stock options, and there’s been a decline in income inequality in recent years, according to economist Elise Gould.
“Stronger wage growth for the bottom 90%, compared to those at the top,” she noted.
It goes back to early in the pandemic, when millions of workers lost their jobs. “We had that government safety net,” Gould said. “When those jobs came back, they had a bit more leverage to bid up their wages.”
Marketplace
January 8, 2025
The wage increases will impact about 9.2 million workers, according to the think tank Economic Policy Institute (EPI), and most of those who will benefit from the bump in pay are women and Black and Hispanic workers. “The January 1 increases show that the minimum wage continues to be a powerful tool for combating racial and gender wage disparities, supporting working families, and reducing poverty,” EPI said in its report.
Next City
January 8, 2025
The minimum wage increases will usher in pay raises for more than 9.2 million workers on Jan. 1 by a total of $5.7 billion, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank. Most of the wage jumps will take place in California, Colorado and Washington.
American City & County
January 8, 2025
Next year’s minimum wage hikes are the legacy of sustained political pressure by advocates for low-wage workers, said Sebastian Martinez Hickey, a state economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute.
“We’re more than a decade into the Fight for $15 movement, which started out with worker organizing in New York City among fast-food workers,” he said.
Nearly half of U.S. workers will live in states with a $15 an hour minimum wage or higher by 2027, Hickey said.
Marketplace
January 8, 2025
Across the country, more than nine million U.S. workers will start seeing bigger paychecks in 2025 because of the changes, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Scripps news
January 8, 2025
The raise in Ohio will affect more than 300,000 people, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for workers. The institute’s research shows that almost 90% of people benefitting from all state increases this year are adults, 58% are women and 20% are in families living below the federal poverty line.
Signal Cleveland
January 8, 2025
Workers across 21 states and 48 individual cities are scheduled to get a pay raise on New Year’s Day.
The Economic Policy Institute says roughly 9.2 million workers will see their wages raised by a total of $5.7 billion.
News 4 San Antonio
January 8, 2025
Hourly minimum wages increased in 21 states on Wednesday, as part of ongoing efforts to have pay keep up with the rising cost of living or to meet milestones such as a $15-an-hour minimum wage. The increases, which range from .18 cents to $1.75, are expected to affect more than 9.2 million workers, raising their pay by a combined $5.7 billion, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
CNN Business
January 8, 2025
State laws that index the minimum wage to inflation are behind 13 of the January increases, according to the Economic Policy Institute, or EPI, a nonprofit think tank. Legislation spurred the coming pay hikes in six states, while ballot measures ushered in wage gains in two.
Nearly one in five, or 20%, of the more than 9.2 million impacted workers reside in households below the poverty line, while nearly half, or almost 49%, have family incomes below twice the poverty line, EPI estimates.
CBS Moneywatch
January 8, 2025
Twenty-one states will raise their minimum wages on Jan. 1, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, and the tenor of the news stories is that this boost to worker paychecks is an economic free lunch. The unseen effect will be added pressure on many businesses to cut hours, increase prices, and automate away opportunities for unskilled workers seeking a first job.
Wall Street Journal
January 8, 2025