Mass minimum wage hike will raise wages to national high

For example IL, which is the fifth most populous state of the US has a minimum wage which is not matching the living wage even if it's $1 over the federal minimum wage.

Cuomo is pushing the Legislature to approve an additional increase in the minimum wage to $15-an-hour, which would likely trigger further increases in the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers. Two years ago SeaTac, Wash., home to an global airport, voted in the nation's first $15-an-hour minimum for 6,500 workers in the city, on and off airport property.

"Nobody who works full-time should live in poverty", Gov. Dannel Malloy said. It will culminate in a minimum wage of $10.10 on January 1, 2017. "Giving a boost to hard-working Vermonters is not only the right thing to do; it is also good for our economy as a whole". While this may come as great news for many, not everyone is cheering about the change.

A lot of people have this belief that it's teenagers who have a summer job, but in fact 95 percent of the people earning minimum wage are over 20, and half of them are over the age of 50.

However, research conducted by the Department of Labor in partnership with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics outlines which professions will see the greatest impact from the wage increase. Fast-food workers in NY won't earn $15 per hour until 2021. New Hampshire technically doesn't have one, so it defaults to the federal minimum wage of $7.25. Meanwhile, the rest of the state will not see an increase at all, as the statewide minimum remains stuck at just $9.47/hour for another year - substantially less than it takes to afford a 1-bedroom apartment in Bellingham, Bremerton, Lewiston, Longview, Tacoma, the Tri-Cities, Wenatchee, Yakima, or just about anywhere else in the state.

Raising the minimum wage was a personal issue for me. About a third have children, and we know over half of them are women.

Keith Brunner, communications coordinator for the Vermont Workers' Center, concurred with Barlow. "No big effects on employment, along with a clear increase in workers' total earnings". The minimum wage in each of those cities is above $12 per hour in 2015. This is a significant increase in the standard of living for these families.

"Employers have to respond to the marketplace, and with low unemployment in the state, they have to do everything they can to attract workers", Harrison said.