Report: DC $15 minimum wage would raise wages for 114,000

Sign up for our FREE acclaimed newsletters!

The news mainstream media just doesn’t cover. Racial justice journalism since 1909.

Sign up

A new report by the Economic Policy Institute concludes that if phased in by 2020, Washington D.C.’s $15 minimum wage proposal would give 114,000 workers a pay raise.

The report also found that the majority of workers who would be affected by the raise would be women (52.6 percent), and 80 percent of the workers who would benefit from the wage increase are workers of color (46.7 percent African-American, 24 percent Hispanic or Latino).

EPI’s report, authored by the organization’s senior analyst, David Cooper, also showed that 75 percent of the workers who would get a raise work full-time and 56 percent of the workers have some college education.

Cooper stated that the report will “strengthen [low-wage workers’] spending power, improve their living standards and bolster the region’s economic vitality. It’s a step toward ensuring that all workers share in our region’s growth and prosperity.”

Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bower’s proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15 is the third time in several months that legislation has been introduced in response to a popular ballot measure. But even supporters of the bill have called out the proposal for leaving tipped workers out in the cold and opening the issue to business-lobbying efforts that could weaken the legislation.

Nevertheless, the proposal has many people on its side.

“The D.C. for $15 ballot measure builds on the success of the Fight for $15 movement and would set an especially important precedent in eliminating the tipped minimum wage, which is currently set at $2.77 an hour in D.C. and amounts to a tipped worker penalty,” said Laura Huizar, staff attorney with the National Employment Law Project, during a news conference. “One cannot address the declining wages and economic challenges facing low-wage workers without eliminating the tipped penalty in favor of one fair wage.”

“D.C. for $15’s ballot initiative campaign has completely changed the conversation to a point where a $15 minimum wage in the District is inevitable,” added Ryan Johnson, executive director of The Fairness Project and a member of the campaign’s steering committee. “The only question is whether it will include tipped workers. It is time for Mayor Bowser and the city council to listen to the vast majority of voters and not leave behind tens of thousands of people who work in some of the District’s most prominent and profitable businesses.”