St. Louis' minimum wage will soon to drop to $7.70, but who benefited from the short-lived increase to $10 an hour?

Economist Charles Gascon and Senior Research Associate Daniel Eubanks looked into the issue and their findings were released in May by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Gascon and Eubanks suggest policymakers differentiate between city residents and city workers. Among 32,500 city residents who earn less than $10 an hour, only 19,900 were affected by the raise. Because the majority of city workers commute from outside the city, about 23,000 non-residents also benefited.

Another crucial distinction is between low-wage workers and low-income households.

“More than half of those living in poverty have no one in their household who is employed. Moreover, many minimum wage workers are often young workers taking their first job,” Gascon and Eubanks wrote. “So, low wages may not be associated with low household income.”