Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Public support to increase state minimum wages to $15.00 per hour continues to grow. It is leading to action. During this year, through legislation and ballot initiatives,New York, California, Oregon and Missouri will consider statewide pay hikes that raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is considering a similar proposal for its fast-food and big-box retail workers. By 2018, New York’s wage board plans to increase the fast food worker minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Public support has spread to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15.00 per hour. Earlier this year, New Jersey Congressman Donald Norcross proposedto increase the federal minimum wage to $15.00 per hour. Under the Congressman’s plan, the federal minimum wage would rise to $8.00 in 2016, and then increase a dollar a year until it reaches $15.00 per hour in 2023. The proposal extends Congressman Scott and Senator Murray’s proposal to increase the federal minimum wage to $12.00 per hour by 2020.

Findings form the latest and vast array of minimum wage studies suggest that job losses associated with these increases will be small. Due to the intense and narrow focus of research on the policy’s employment effects, state and federal policymakers know little about the impact on a family’s well-being.

Food Security and the Minimum Wage answers the following questions: (1) Who is food secure, (2) What is the policy context and why should we care about the link between an increase in the minimum wage and food security, (3) How does an increase in the minimum wage improve food security, a key indicator of a household’s well-being, (4) Which households benefit from an increase in the minimum wage, (5) What are the dynamics of how the increase works, and (6) What would be the impact of an increase in the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15.00 per hour?