A minimum wage increase would directly raise the wages of all workers who earn less than the new minimum wage, and economic models suggest that it would also help lift wages for other low-paid workers. This paper also examines how many children live in families with a minimum wage worker and how many would benefit from an increase.
Even now at the close of 2012, workers across Massachusetts are still hampered by the lingering effects of the “Great Recession.”
To mark the close of 2012, MassBudget presents a snapshot of the current economic landscape, along with some of the long-term trends affecting workers and their families.
Here in Massachusetts, close to 1 in 7 young people is unemployed. Nationwide, 6.5 million “disconnected youth” are out of school and also out of work.
Median household income in Massachusetts fell to $62,859 in 2011, a decline of 1.7 percent from 2010. This is the second year in a row that the median income has dropped in Massachusetts.
The overall poverty rate in Massachusetts was 11.6 percent in 2011—roughly the same as in 2010. By contrast, the overall U.S. poverty rate did show a significant increase, from 15.3 percent in 2010 to 15.9 percent in 2011.
Children in Massachusetts fare better than in much of the rest of the nation, as child poverty in the Commonwealth remains unchanged and health insurance coverage is widespread.
Even though the economy has stopped shrinking and begun to grow, that growth is too slow to fully restore the losses experienced by workers and families in recent years.