Increases in the cost of living have driven Minnesota’s statewide minimum wage below where it was in 1968, when its purchasing power peaked. Meanwhile, the typical low-wage worker is just as likely to be middle-aged or elderly as young.

Those are among the findings that gave Minneapolis cause to recently raise citywide wages, with the goal of hitting $15 an hour for almost every worker by the year 2024.

Should St. Paul — with fewer employers, but just as much poverty — do the same, and just as quickly?

As city officials contemplate if and how to raise the minimum wage, a new report from the Citizen’s League compiles key studies on the issue.

The St. Paul Foundation commissioned the non-partisan league to gather existing information about how increases to the minimum wage might impact small and large business owners, nonprofits, youth workers and start-up operations.

The 33-page report, which is available on the Citizen’s League website at CitizensLeague.org, will be presented to the St. Paul City Council on Wednesday.

The league has described the report as an “exploratory” first phase that lays the groundwork for further discussion, rather than as a final recommendation.

Among the issues raised: Would the wage increase impact the public benefits that people on public assistance currently receive? How many low-income people will not benefit because they live in St. Paul but work elsewhere? And how many people might benefit who live elsewhere but work in St. Paul?

Using information provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development and other sources, the report finds that 146,314 of the city’s 304,442 residents are employed. St. Paul is home to 182,532 jobs.

While St. Paul residents work throughout the metro, the largest share of working residents — 40,465 residents in 2015 — are employed within the city itself. That’s followed by Minneapolis, at 25,461, then Bloomington, at 5,187 and then Eagan and Roseville.

Most workers in St. Paul live in St. Paul, Minneapolis, Woodbury, Maplewood or Eagan.

The report found 25,000 working St. Paul residents with low earnings of less than $1,250 per month.

About one-third of them, or 8,000 residents, worked in St. Paul, while the majority of the rest worked in Minneapolis or Bloomington.

A household composed of one full-time worker, one part-time worker and a child would need to earn $19.48 per hour to cover $60,790 in annual expenses (such as child care, food, healthcare and housing) in Ramsey County, or $1.79 more per hour than the statewide average.

In addition to its own data analysis, the league met with more than 200 workers, employers, elected officials and advocates between November and February. It received 100 additional online comments.

Among the findings:

-Most of St. Paul’s large employers such as Allina Health, Ecolab, HealthPartners and Securian already pay the majority of their workers at least $15 per hour. Private colleges do the same for full-time employees but not for part-time student workers, who earn about $10.

-Nonprofits that employ disabled people at a special wage that is at or below the statewide minimum worry they will not be able to cover increased costs. They said lay-offs would disrupt their staff-to-client ratios, losing them clients.

-Some franchise and small business owners such as bookstores said their prices were set by publishers and national brands, so they cannot raise prices to cover increased labor costs.

-Without an exemption for young people, a small, family-run restaurant worried about no longer being able to afford to pay summer youth.

Speaking through an interpreter, a low-wage retail janitor “felt strongly that no one should be exempted, including youth workers, believing teens should be able to make the same as adults, knowing that some support their families,” according to the report.

Meanwhile, some immigrant-owned businesses were insistent that they did not want a $15 minimum wage increase because they cannot financially support the increase in labor costs, according to the report.

A manufacturer that pays an employee $12 an hour may also have to pay $6 to the staffing agency for a total of $18 an hour to fill just one position, according to the report.

The report also notes that if St. Paul delivers a set of minimum wage rules that differ from that of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota, employers who operate in multiple cities will have to juggle three types of record-keeping.

Other aspects of the report focused on nursing homes and senior housing, youth workers in non-profit training settings, and restaurant workers who support or are opposed to a credit for tipped employees.