WASHINGTON – On November 7, voters in six states will decide whether to reject or approve minimum wage hikes above the federal rate of $5.15 an hour, reports Stateline.com.
According to the news source, Democratic organizers in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Ohio were successful in certifying ballot initiatives that seek to raise the minimum wage. This year, 11 states, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia, have enacted hourly minimum wage hikes, which brings the total number of states to 23 that have an hourly minimum wage rate higher than $5.15 an hour.
The news source notes that according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), state legislatures considered 30 minimum wage bills this year, which represents a 10-year high of legislative activity at the state level addressing minimum wage increases.
“Political analysts on both sides of the issue agree that recent fervor for the issue is as much related to politics as it is to policy,” notes the news source, adding that national polls indicate broad bipartisan support among American voters to boost the minimum wage. However, in the political arena, the issue is split among Republicans and Democrats.
Stateline.com writes that traditionally, Democrats have sponsored legislation to boost the minimum wage as a means to “help poor families climb out of poverty,” while across the aisle, Republicans oppose such measures because they maintain “government-mandated pay raises hurt they local economy and create job loss.” Of the 30 minimum wage bills introduced this year at the state level, Democrats authored all. However, “some key Republican state lawmakers broke from the pack to support minimum wage increases.”
“Support for the issue is a mile wide and an inch deep,” Mike Flynn of the Employment Policies Institute told the news source, adding, “A lot of uncommitted voters say they support wage hikes, but not passionately enough to make them vote on that basis.”
Stateline.com cites an April 2006 Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey that found 88 percent of the general public approves minimum wage increases, and that 59 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of Republicans “strongly favored” minimum age increases.