Following states like California and New York, the Washington D.C. City Council unanimously decided to boost minimum wage for workers to $15 last month.
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser pledged to lift the pay for those being paid minimum wage by 2020, according to the Mayor’s Office. This month, Washington D.C.’s minimum wage is scheduled to raise a dollar from $10.50 to $11.50.
Now with the council’s approval this past June, Washington D.C.’s minimum wage will rise by 70 cents each year starting this upcoming year, until it reaches the agreed $15 in 2020. After 2020 the minimum wage will then be left to rise or decline annually, automatically and in accordance with inflation.
In the midst of the biggest pay gap between the lower and upper class of Washington D.C., and the high cost of living in the district, the council’s decision is highly appealing to those workers who rely on multiple low paying jobs to keep food on the table.
But as minimum wages rise, many workers are unsettled about how this will affect their lives in the long run.
Brandon Scott, a general manager at the fast food chain Jimmy John’s, expressed his concern in the overall effects this raise can do to the district. “When minimum wage goes up, everything goes up,” Scott said. “Prices will go up, everything will increase.”
When asked about how the bill will affect Jimmy John’s and it’s employees, Scott said, “Some hours might be cut, it all depends.”
Other laborers however, feel no worry about the raising minimum wage.
Noah Marcus, a front desk worker at Sport & Health and student, who admitted to being paid minimum wage does not share Scott’s worries.
About the decision to raise minimum wage to $15 by 2020, Marcus said, “That’s awesome. It’s good for kids my age. There’s a lot of youth in the work force.”
Marcus also shared his thoughts on current elections paying attention to minimum wage workers, “It’s good that the candidates see it as a relevant issue. It keeps kids interested in politics.”
Marcus pointed out the advantages for students earning more money at the minimum, and was genuinely excited about having more money to create more opportunities for himself. Many youth in the workforce rely on their wages to provide for their education and living expenses.
I need to work more to pay for school so I can get an education but I can’t get an education if I work more
— jack daniels (@ijackyyou) July 8, 2016
According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were over 15 million workers between the ages of 16 to 24 in 2015, and over 2 million of them were paid minimum wage or in some cases even less.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has also released that “large numbers of high school and college students search for or take summer jobs.” But with University of California Berkeley’s research on minimum wage concluding that “if a student has no aid and wants to graduate debt-free from one of the public universities in the Bay Area, they’d need to work anywhere from 24-48 hours a day, everyday of the week,” students in the work force are pulling on the short end of the straw.