This fact sheet was produced in collaboration with the National Employment Law Project .

Based on EPI’s 2019 analysis, the Raise the Wage Act would have the following benefits:

This fact sheet is an update of “Why America Needs a $15 Minimum Wage,” published by EPI and the National Employment Law Project April 26, 2017.

Unless otherwise indicated, the figures presented in this fact sheet come from David Cooper, Raising the Federal Minimum Wage to $15 by 2024 Would Lift Wages for 41 Million Workers, Economic Policy Institute, April 26, 2017, including text; Figures A, E–F, H–I, K; and Appendix Table 3.

The section on business owners and groups that have backed a $15 minimum wage draws multiple examples from Impact of the Fight for $15: 68 Billion in Raises, 22 Million Workers, National Employment Law Project, November 2018 and also draws examples from the following other sources: “Business Owners Testify in Support of $15 at D.C. Council Hearing on Minimum Wage Hike,” Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, May 26, 2016; New York Businesses Voice Support of $15 Minimum Wage Passing Today,Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, April 1, 2016; “California Business Owners Speak Out in Support of Just-Passed Historic Minimum Wage Bill,” Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, March 31, 2016; “Taking the Fight for $15 to Annapolis,” Patriotic Millionaires, March 9, 2017; Office of the Governor of New York, “Governor Cuomo, Joined by Vice President Biden, Announces Push to Raise New York’s Minimum Wage to $15 an Hour,” September 10, 2015; Paula Katinas, “Chamber Brings Brooklyn Business Concerns to Albany,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 16, 2016; Martin Austermuhle, “D.C. Takes First Step Toward $15 Minimum Wage,” WAMU 88.5, June 7, 2016; Elizabeth Henderson, “$15 Minimum: Good for Farmers,” Morning AgClips, March 22, 2016; Phil Andrews, “A $15 Minimum Wage is Good for Long Island Businesses,” The Huffington Post, March 24, 2016; Fight for $15 Impact Report: Raises for 17 Million Workers, 10 Million Going to $15, National Employment Law Project, April 2016, Table 3; “USAA Sets $16 Minimum Wage, Expands Parental Leave Benefits,” San Antonio Express-News, April 11, 2017; “Nursing Home Workers in Florida Win Minimum Wage Increase and Put Thousands on a Path to $15,” 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, May 18, 2016.

Sylvia Allegretto and David Cooper, Twenty-Three Years and Still Waiting for Change: Why It’s Time to Give Tipped Workers the Regular Minimum Wage, Economic Policy Institute, July 10, 2014.

With workforces of 17.7 million, 8.6 million, 3.2 million, and 360,000 respectively, California, New York, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia account for 21 percent of the U.S. workforce, which totals 142 million. David Cooper, Raising the Federal Minimum Wage to $15 by 2024 Would Lift Wages for 41 Million Workers, Economic Policy Institute, April 26, 2017.

Impact of the Fight for $15: 68 Billion in Raises, 22 Million Workers, National Employment Law Project, November 2018.

David Autor, Alan Manning, and Christopher L. Smith, “The Contribution of the Minimum Wage to U.S. Wage Inequality over Three Decades: A Reassessment,” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics vol. 8, no. 1, January 2016.

Over the full eight-year phase-in period, affected workers would receive over $144 billion in additional annual wages, assuming no change in the number of work hours for these workers. See Cooper, Raising the Federal Minimum Wage.

Cooper, Raising the Federal Minimum Wage, Appendix Table 3. See also Laura Huizar and Tsedeye Gebreselassie, What a $15 Minimum Wage Means for Women of Color, National Employment Law Project, December 13, 2016.

CBO projections for the consumer price index were applied to the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator, which measures the income a family needs to attain a secure yet modest standard of living in all counties and metro areas across the country.

Cooper, Raising the Federal Minimum Wage, Appendix Table 3; and Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment Statistics, May 2016.

Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment Statistics, May 2016.

Paul J. Wolfson and Dale Belman, “ 15 Years of Research on U.S. Employment and the Minimum Wage ,” Tuck School of Business Working Paper No. 2705499, 2016.

Ellora Derenoncourt and Claire Montialoux, “ Minimum Wages and Racial Inequality ,” Job Market Paper, November 30, 2018.

Doruk Cengiz, Arindrajit Dube, Attila Lindner, and Ben Zipperer, “ The Effect of Minimum Wages on Low-Wage Jobs: Evidence from the United States Using a Bunching Estimator, ” LSE Center for Economic Performance Discussion Paper 1531, February, 2018.

Arindrajit Dube, “ Minimum Wages and the Distribution of Family Incomes, ” American Economic Journal – Applied, forthcoming; Kevin Rinz and John Voorheis, “ The Distributional Effects of Minimum Wages: Evidence from Linked Survey and Administrative Data .” U.S. Census CARRA Working Paper 2018-02, 2018.

John Schmittt, “CBO and the Minimum Wage, PT 2,” CEPR Blog, Center for Economic and Policy Research, February 20, 2014; Michael Reich, “The Troubling Fine Print in the Claim that Raising the Minimum Wage Will Cost Jobs,” ThinkProgress, Center for American Progress, February 19, 2014.

Ken Jacobs, Ian Perry, and Jenifer MacGillvary, The High Public Cost of Low Wages, University of California Berkeley, Labor Center, April 2015.