Four states vote in support of minimum wage hikes

Voters in four states on Election Day expressed a desire for a higher minimum wage — and simultaneously put more Republicans in office.

All but two congressional and gubernatorial races in Alaska, Nebraska, Arkansas and South Dakota were won by Republican candidates. Yet it was in those four states where voters approved ballot referendums that will gradually raise their respective minimum wages above the federal level of $7.25 by 2016 or 2017.

The votes were a surprise to some analysts given the states’ strong support for the pro-business, small-government Republican Party, as the minimum wage is a government-mandated price floor.

In Tuesday’s election, North Carolina’s state government remained firmly in Republican control, and the majority of the state’s congressional delegation is Republican — but a recent poll suggests that there might be substantial support for a raise, said Kenneth Fernandez, an Elon University political science professor and director of the Elon Poll.

Elon’s poll in April was open-ended, and respondents could name their desired minimum wage. Fernandez said the average wage suggested was $10, and was likely due to rhetoric from President Barack Obama, who had suggested the federal minimum wage be raised to more than $10 an hour.

“It seems that that had been percolating down to a lot of different states that there needs to be an increase, and that the increase should be relatively substantial,” he said.

Patrick Conway, an economics professor at UNC, said the classic criticism of raising the minimum wage centers on the notion that doing so will reduce employment.

“If you increase the price floor, then the number of people that the typical business can hire profitably is expected to go down,” he said.

Conway said existing studies don’t necessarily confirm or deny this impact. He also suggested that the growing oil and natural gas markets in low-population states like Alaska and South Dakota could be leading all wages to go up, naturally dragging the minimum wage with them.

T. William Lester, a professor in UNC’s Department of City and Regional Planning, said there might be issues with businesses crossing state borders to avoid paying a higher minimum wage.

Wage changes have occurred on the local level as well — San Francisco raised its city-wide minimum wage to $15 per hour, a number far beyond the $10.10 hourly wage that groups like the Service Employees International Union have been requesting.

“I think the city level minimum wage is the area where we need more research,” Lester said.

Still, he said his research on the effects of the minimum wage show that moderate wage increases don’t cause employment losses for most businesses.

“The minimum wage is one of the few policies that even in red states like Arkansas and South Dakota people can get behind to do something about the issue of inequality.”

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