Show Me the Money: Federal minimum wage set to increase in 20 states

The minimum wage is increasing in 20 states and over two dozen cities in the new year, NPR reports. Some 5.3 million workers will reportedly be affected by the wage hike, according to the Washington, D.C. based Economic Policy Institute.

Getting a wage increase have been a long-fought fight for unions and liberal advocacy groups who have supported raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour nationwide.

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The “Fight for $15,” became a rallying cry by fast food workers who held protests and pushed for a livable wage not only for restaurant workers but in the child care and airline sectors.

“It may not have motivated every lawmaker to agree that we should go to $15,” said David Cooper, senior economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute. “But it’s motivated many of them to accept that we need higher minimum wages than we currently have in much of the country.”

The last time the minimum wage was increased was in 2009. Some 29 states and the District of Columbia have since worked to raise the minimum wage above the federal guidelines.

“The federal minimum wage has really become irrelevant,” said Michael Saltsman, managing director of the Employment Policies Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based group that receives funding from businesses and opposes minimum wage increases.

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Workers making minimum wage, however, would beg to differ with Saltsman’s assertion.

After state legislators failed to approve ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage in Arkansas and Missouri, voters on the other hand did approve it this past fall.

In Missouri, the minimum wage will increase to $8.60 from $7.85 an hour on Tuesday at the beginning of the new year. It’s the first of five annual increases that will raise the wage to $12 an hour by 2023.

Along with the wage hike, new state laws also take effect on Tuesday that center on revising sexual harassment policies in light of the #MeToo movement.

There will also be more stringent requirements on gun sales as a result of widespread mass shootings. Criminal penalties will also be revamped.

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