| State minimum wages go beyond federal effort |
| Written by Sam Johnson | |
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Nearly half of all U.S. states and commonwealths feel that the federal minimum wage doesn't go far enough to promote equity and fairness, and have set their own minimum wage guidelines that are higher than the national minimum.
The federal government has set a minimum wage since the late 1930s. This baseline standard of compensation for labor is intended to provide low-skilled workers with minimal job opportunities with enough pay to meet their basic needs, and to prevent them from being exploited by large corporations. Some state governments have opined that the federal minimum wage does not go far enough in providing a living wage to workers, or is not adequate to the cost of living in their areas, and have responded to this perception by setting their own minimum wages. States have long enjoyed the right to set minimum wages higher than the federal minimum wage, and this right has been affirmed by the courts in several cases throughout the last few decades. In fact, the first state to set it's own minimum wage was Massachusetts, which did so in 1912, almost three decades before the federal minimum wage was enacted in the late 1930s. The majority of states who set minimum wages higher than the federal minimum wage do so because their state leaders believe that the cost of living in their area makes the federal minimum wage insufficient to provide for the basic needs of workers. In most cases, states who set their minimum wages higher than the federal minimum do so by setting a flat rate in a one-time act. Some states have begun to index their minimum wage to the consumer price index. The consumer price index is a measurement of the average price of goods and services over time and is a good way to account for inflation. By pegging the minimum wage to inflation, state governments can ensure that the wage continues to provide for the basic needs of their citizens. Many of the states who currently set their own minimum wage guidelines started doing so in the 1990s, after the federal minimum wage had been stagnant for almost a decade. Here's a list of states that set their own minimum wages, and how much those wages are:
States that do not have their own minimum wage, and who abide by the federal minimum wage include: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Some states can allow exceptions to the federal minimum wage for certain businesses. In general, a state can give a business an exception to the federal minimum wage if that business is exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act. One common exempt group are business that have revenues of less than $500,000 per year that are not engaged in any interstate commerce. |
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