COWS | High Road Strategy Center announced in a recent press release its Can’t Survive on $7.25: Higher Minimum Wages for Working Wisconsin report, which analyzes the impact higher minimum wages stand to have for the state. The report provides data for increasing the state minimum wage on a five-year timeline to both $15 and $20 per hour.
Key report findings include:
- Raising Wisconsin’s minimum wage to $15 would raise the wages of just under 15% — or more than 375,000 — of the state’s workers;
- Raising the state minimum wage to $20 would raise wages for one-third the state workforce — nearly 900,000 workers;
- One in every four of the state’s Black and Hispanic workers — 25.6% and 26.6%, respectively — would see their wages rise with a $15 per hour minimum;
- Eighteen percent of women workers and 80% of teenage workers would see their wages rise with a $15 per hour minimum; and
- More than half of all Wisconsin workers that would benefit from a $15 minimum wage are employed in just two sectors — restaurants and retail.
Can’t Survive on $7.25: Higher Minimum Wages for Working Wisconsin is a product of the “EARN in the Midwest” project in Wisconsin, a collaborative of COWS | High Road Strategy Center, Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization, and Kids Forward.
Read the full report here.
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