WASHINGTON – The District of Columbia’s city council voted to raise minimum wage to $15 in June 2016.
The Fair Shot Minimum Wage Emergency Amendment Act of 2016 has been enacted “[t]o amend, on an emergency basis, the Minimum Wage Revision Act of 1992 to progressively increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020.”
According to USA Today, Washington, D.C., is the third wealthiest city in America. However, a high income leads to high living expenses and USA Today goes on to report that the cost of a “comfortable” life in D.C. is $108,092 annually. The high cost of living in the city is one of the driving factors behind the council’s decision to increase the minimum wage.
Some who oppose the raise in wage believe that the increase will cause the expenses for living in the city to increase as well. Tyon Britton, store associate of Ace Hardware, disagrees because “the cost of living in the city is already sky high.” Britton supports the council’s decision because he believes it is “good for a lot of people, especially people who don’t have a lot of education.”
#ConservativeBecause raising the minimum wage won’t raise retirement checks, but it’ll raise the prices of everything else.
— Kyle Pappas (@jarkbat13) July 11, 2016
Costs are all going up. That’s why it’s time to raise the #minimumwage to $15/hour. SIGN to join the movement! https://t.co/5VBKJuYtf2
— Peg (@FluffyCakeWhore) July 10, 2016
New York and California already have plans to raise the state minimum wage to $15 by 2019 and 2022 respectively, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Both states contain a city or cities included in USA Today’s list of the ten wealthiest cities in America. The trend of wealthy areas having high minimum wages is also exhibited by CNBC’s list of the ten most expensive states to live in. Of the ten states, New Jersey has the lowest minimum wage and it is still the sixteenth highest in the country.
Washington D.C. currently has the highest minimum wage in the country at $10.50 an hour, according to the National Council of State Legislatures.
Minimum wage is one of the primary issues confronting candidates in the 2016 election. Presidential candidate Donald Trump (R) changes positions on the issue fairly often, however, according to The Politics and Elections Portal, he has said that “[w]e can’t have a situation where our labor is so much more expensive than other countries’ that we can no longer compete.”
Candidate Bernie Sanders (D), on the other hand, strongly supports an increase in the federal minimum wage. On Friday he won a $15 minimum wage amendment to the Democratic platform, according to Newsday.
Fellow candidate and Democrat Hillary Clinton also supports the increase, according to The Politics and Elections Portal. She has voiced her support for the Fight for 15 campaign and finds the minimum wage for tipped workers especially unfair “because it is assumed that they’re gonna make all this money on tips.”