Leave it to the States: Exploring the Wide Variation in State Minimum Wages from 2009-2021
Open Access
- Author:
- Vangeri, Cassidy
- Area of Honors:
- Political Science
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Michael Barth Berkman, Thesis Supervisor
Matthew Richard Golder, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- minimum wages
state
party control
inflation
cost of living
ballot access
public opinion
unions - Abstract:
- The variation in minimum wages at the state level and the factors that influence this variation have been studied by researchers for decades, yet there is little research on current period of stagnancy in the federal minimum wage. The last federal minimum wage increase occurred in 2009 and states have taken it upon themselves to raise their wages in accordance with their state’s needs. This paper explores the political and economic factors that influence states to raise their minimum wages and determines what causes the variation in wages across states and over time. The economic factors include state inflation rates, cost of living, and unions as an economic factor. The political factors include unions as a political factor, party control, public opinion, and ballot access. I conduct three multiple regression analyses to compare the influence of political and economic factors across all 50 states between the years of 2009 to 2021. I discover that economic and political factors both impact state minimum wages, yet some factors are not significant depending on the time period in which they are studied, and some factors become more significant over time. State level economic and political factors become less important as state parties increasingly become more nationalized and promote party platforms. Economic factors prove to be mediated through political institutions; therefore, the combined effect of economic and political factors influences the variation in state minimum wages.