The presidential and congressional election results, for obvious reason, deeply overshadowed any of the progressive wins in this election. But there are a few that are worth highlighting so that we don’t lose sight of some hopeful trends underway.
Minimum wage: Four states just voted to up their minimum wage: Arizona, Colorado, Maine and Washington, each representing a 40-60% increase from the current rate. This follows from approved ballot initiatives in California and Washington DC earlier this year, all of which ultimately led to higher pay for roughly 8 million working Americans and paid sick days for 1.9 million, according to the Fairness Project. (An additional 14 states saw wage increases at the beginning of 2016, as scheduled.)
Moreover, 15 cities are currently committed and moving towards a $15 minimum wage, and several states and cities are set to put minimum wage measures up for a vote in the next year or two.
These recent gains are reflective of a generally supportive climate for increasing the minimum wage, across partisan lines. During the 2014 mid-term elections, as CNN reports, four red-leaning states: Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota, all approved minimum wage increases. Since 2000, in fact, at least 15 minimum wage initiatives have been on the ballot; all of them have passed, and often with wide margins. Support for these measures reflects the general public sentiment: an estimated 6 in 10 Americans back the more progressive $15 minimum wage, according to a 2015 poll by the National Employment Law Project.
These local and state-level initiatives are important for several reasons, the most salient of which is that a federal minimum wage increase has been stagnated by partisan politics, and has left millions of Americans well behind. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that today’s federal minimum wage (at $7.25) is nearly a quarter lower than its 1960s inflation-adjusted value. In other words, the federal lag is contributing to today’s widening economic inequality, and increasing reliance on federal safety net programs.
Jobs too: there’s also evidence that higher minimum wages can help to spur job growth, even as reported by Fox news in 2014 following wage increases across several states.
Trending hikes in minimum wages, including in this election, is a positive and progressive way forward for the country.