Who Benefits And Who Pays For Minimum Wage Increases In California PDF Download

502 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916)444-0500 FAX (916)444-0172 August 2000 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON THE MINIMUM WAGE IN CALIFORNIA Q: Does increasing the minimum wage raise wages? After the 1996-1998 minimum wage increases in California, wages rose substantially for those at the bottom of the wage distribution. [...] A recent study by government economists estimates that over 8 percent of workers nationally spend at least half of their first 10 post-school years in jobs that pay within a dollar of the minimum wage.3 That is about the same as the current portion of workers in jobs that pay near the minimum.4 This indicates that a sizable fraction of workers stay in jobs at or near the minimum wage for a signifi. [...] The employment rate grew by 1.8 points more for Latinos, 6.5 points more for adults over 20 years old without a high school degree, and .4 points more for teenagers as compared to the overall growth rate of 3.0 points.6 Data for this period also suggest that the retail industry -- which employs over a third of workers earning near the minimum wage -- did not employ fewer people than it would have. [...] While previous research has often found evidence of job loss in the eating and drinking (restaurant) sector of the retail industry, CBP's analysis of the data from the most recent wage increases found the evidence to be inconsistent.7 Q: Do minimum wage increases benefit the poor? One way to measure if minimum wage increases are well-targeted is to divide all California families by income into ten. [...] Wage levels were approximated for each low-wage industry by dividing the payroll levels reported in California Business Patterns and Covered Employment and Wage reports (ES-202) by the number of persons employed as reported by the Employment Development Department, a distinct reporting source.