Minimum Wage

The Center for American Progress has long worked to build the policy case for raising the minimum wage and eliminating the subminimum wage for people with disabilities and tipped workers. The following research and analyses demonstrate how people deserve to be paid fairly for their work and how a higher minimum wage would—rather than limit job growth—provide financial stability for families and boost overall economic growth.

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The Minimum Wage Is a Poverty Wage Article
Activists in the restaurant and service industries gather for a Raise the Wage Act rally.

The Minimum Wage Is a Poverty Wage

The federal minimum wage has lost the ability to keep workers out of poverty; but this November, voters in multiple states will have the chance to ensure better wages.

Kyle Ross

Fact Sheet: Building an Economy That Delivers for Women Fact Sheet
A woman pushing a stroller walks through an atrium with light pouring in and a small pool reflecting plant life

Fact Sheet: Building an Economy That Delivers for Women

This fact sheet offers a brief summary of CAP’s “Playbook for the Advancement of Women in the Economy,” which provides federal and state policymakers with the tools they need to center women in their economic plans and grow the economy.

Rose Khattar

Setting Sectoral Standards in the U.S. and the World Past Event

Setting Sectoral Standards in the U.S. and the World

Please join the Center for American Progress and a panel of esteemed experts for a discussion on sectoral bargaining.

Revolutionizing the Workplace: Why Long COVID and the Increase of Disabled Workers Require a New Approach Report
A doctor holds a patients hand during an appointment.

Revolutionizing the Workplace: Why Long COVID and the Increase of Disabled Workers Require a New Approach

Using new data from the U.S. Census Bureau to examine the impacts of long COVID on the labor market, this report recommends that employers, unions, and policymakers create better workplaces for disabled workers and all workers.

Mia Ives-Rublee, Rose Khattar, Anona Neal

Ending the subminimum wage for tipped workers would benefit everyone In the News

Ending the subminimum wage for tipped workers would benefit everyone

As voters in Portland, Maine, and Washington, D.C., prepare to head to the ballot box to decide whether to eliminate the subminimum wage for tipped workers, Justin Schweitzer explains why all workers—tipped and untipped—should be paid at least the state minimum wage.

MarketWatch

Justin Schweitzer

With Prices Rising, States and Cities Must Raise Their Minimum Wages In the News

With Prices Rising, States and Cities Must Raise Their Minimum Wages

Lily Roberts and Rose Khattar outline why, 13 years since the federal minimum wage was last increased, states and cities must take action to ease the economic strain many workers and families face now in light of global inflation.

Route Fifty

Lily Roberts, Rose Khattar

It’s Long Past Time To Increase the Federal Minimum Wage Article
Activists with Our Revolution hold $15 minimum wage signs outside the U.S. Capitol.

It’s Long Past Time To Increase the Federal Minimum Wage

This month marks 13 years since the federal minimum wage was increased. The lack of an increase during this period has disproportionately harmed women and people of color.

Ashfaq Khan, Rose Khattar

How Weak Safety Net Policies Exacerbate Regional and Racial Inequality Report

How Weak Safety Net Policies Exacerbate Regional and Racial Inequality

While all low-income individuals and families, particularly those of color, struggle to avoid falling into poverty, some receive less support solely because of where they live.

Alexandra Cawthorne Gaines, Bradley Hardy, Justin Schweitzer

Rural Workers of Color Need a $15 Federal Minimum Wage Article
Laborers harvest yellow onions, April 2007. (Getty/Robert Nickelsberg)

Rural Workers of Color Need a $15 Federal Minimum Wage

Increasing the federal minimum wage will help address decades-long inequalities in the rural job market.

Caius Z. Willingham

Raising the Minimum Wage Would Be Transformative for Women Article
A woman wears a mask and gloves as she works as a cashier at a supermarket in Miami, April 2020. (Getty/Joe Raedle)

Raising the Minimum Wage Would Be Transformative for Women

Women make up the majority of workers who would benefit from raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025, as they are overrepresented in tipped and low-wage jobs.

Diana Boesch, Robin Bleiweis, Areeba Haider

The Basic Facts About Children in Poverty Report

The Basic Facts About Children in Poverty

Nearly 11 million children are living in poverty in America. Here is how the crisis reached this point—and what steps must be taken to solve it.

Areeba Haider

Observing Minimum Wage Workers’ Equal Pay Day Article
Store employees check out customers at a supermarket in Miami, May 2018. (Getty/Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group)

Observing Minimum Wage Workers’ Equal Pay Day

March 19 marks how far into the new year minimum wage workers must work to earn the same amount they did in 2009, the year Congress last increased the federal minimum wage.

Lily Roberts, Galen Hendricks, Robin Bleiweis

Short-Changed: How Tipped Work Exacerbates the Pay Gap for Latinas Article
A woman folds laundry for a client at a laundromat in Los Angeles, October 2014. (Getty/Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

Short-Changed: How Tipped Work Exacerbates the Pay Gap for Latinas

Latina Equal Pay Day serves as a reminder that Latinas make 54.5 cents for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men. New analysis demonstrates that the difference is even starker for Latinas who work for tips: Tipped Latina workers earn 65 percent less than nontipped white, non-Hispanic men.

Lily Roberts, Galen Hendricks

March 1 Is Minimum Wage Workers’ Equal Pay Day Article
A cashier checks out a customer in Lakewood, Colorado, August 11, 2017. (Getty/Joe Amon/The Denver Post)

March 1 Is Minimum Wage Workers’ Equal Pay Day

March 1, 2018 marks how far into the new year America's lowest-paid workers must work just to earn the same amount they did in 2009, when Congress last increased the federal minimum wage.

Rachel West

Meet the 1 Percenter Who Wants to Pay More Taxes Podcast

Meet the 1 Percenter Who Wants to Pay More Taxes

Michele and Igor sit down with CAP Senior Fellow Seth Hanlon and entrepreneur and 1 percenter Nick Hanauer to talk about the Republican tax plan and trickle-down economics.

Michele L. Jawando, Igor Volsky, Sally Tucker, 1 More Rachel Rosen

Economics of Misogyny Article
In this July 24, 2017, photograph, Otibehia Allen, a single mother of five, stands outside her rented mobile home in Jonestown, Mississippi. Allen works 30 hours a week as a data entry clerk and transportation dispatcher for a medical clinic, pulling in barely more than minimum wage. (AP/Rogelio V. Solis)

Economics of Misogyny

Misogyny is more than being catcalled when you’re on your way to work; it’s embedded within the structure of our economy and limits our economic potential.

Kate Bahn

Five Flaws in a New Analysis of Seattle’s Minimum Wage Article
Workers clean inside the Washington State Route 99 tunnel in Seattle, December 2016. (AP/Elaine Thompson)

Five Flaws in a New Analysis of Seattle’s Minimum Wage

Methodological problems plague a University of Washington group’s analysis of Seattle’s recent minimum wage increase.

Rachel West

Labor Secretary 101: Why It Matters Article
A human resources director talks with job applicants during a job fair, January 2015. ((AP/Lynne Sladky))

Labor Secretary 101: Why It Matters

The secretary of labor plays an important role in the daily lives of workers, from ensuring fair workplaces to advancing the economic security of working families. It is critical that whoever fills the position is dedicated to furthering these goals for all Americans.

Danielle Corley, Jocelyn Frye

Related Priorities

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Tackling Climate Change and Environmental Injustice

We pursue climate action that meets the crisis’s urgency, creates good-quality jobs, benefits disadvantaged communities, and restores U.S. credibility on the global stage.

Restoring Social Trust in Democracy

Restoring Social Trust in Democracy

Democracy is under attack at home and abroad. We must act to ensure it is accessible to all, accountable, and can serve as a force of good.

Building an Economy for All

Building an Economy for All

Economic growth must be built on the foundation of a strong and secure middle class so that all Americans benefit from growth.

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