Fiscal Note
No appropriation required.
Title
Supporting state and federal efforts to gradually increase the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour.
Body
WHEREAS, a February report by the Center on Wisconsin Strategy has found that increasing the state's minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10 per hour by 2016 would directly increase wages for 404,000 workers in the state; and
WHEREAS, the report stated that another 183,000 workers who earn wages just over $10.10 per hour would see an increase due to a ripple effect, bringing the total benefiting to be over half a million workers; and
WHEREAS, the Congressional Budget Office predicts that gradually raising the minimum wage to $10.10 would lift 900,000 people nationally above the federal poverty level by 2016, while increasing the incomes of 16.5 million low-wage workers; and
WHEREAS, some of the 10.8 percent Wisconsin children living in poverty in 2012 would live better as family incomes increase. COWS estimates that 234,000 Wisconsin children would see family income rise; and
WHEREAS, increased wages would provide a modest boost to the economy as consumers spend more; and
WHEREAS, businesses such as Costco and Gap have found that higher pay reduces turnover and improves productivity; and
WHEREAS, 57 percent of workers benefiting would be women, and 87 percent are 20 years or older; and
WHEREAS, Six hundred economists, including seven Nobel prize winners, have stated that "increases in the minimum wage had had little or no negative impact on the employment of minimum-wage workers"; and
WHEREAS, a Hart Research Association poll in 2013 found broad support for raising the minimum wage, including 92 percent of Democrats, 62 percent of Republicans and 80 percent of Independents;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Madison Common Council supports efforts to raise the minimum wage in Wisconsin and nationally.