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Capitol View®
Catharine Richert

PoliGraph: Minimum wage claim correct

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DFL legislators are at odds over an effort to raise the minimum wage.

But the one thing Democrats in both the House and Senate do agree on is that minimum wage hasn’t kept pace with the cost of living.

Sen. John Hoffman, DFL-Champlin, underscored that point in a recent press release.

“Currently, about 20 percent of Minnesota jobs pay less than $10.03 an hour, which is what the federal minimum wage would be today if it had been increased for inflation since the late 1960s.”

Hoffman’s claim is correct.

The Evidence

Minnesota has a two-tiered minimum wage system. Employers with annual revenue less than $625,000 must pay their workers $5.25 an hour. Employers that make more than that must pay their employees $6.15 an hour.

Minnesota has one of the lowest minimum wages in the country – even lower than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

Both the House and the Senate have passed legislation that would increase the state’s minimum wage to $9.50 an hour, one of the highest rates in the nation. What DFL lawmakers can’t agree on is whether the rates should keep up with inflation.

With this statement, lawmakers like Hoffman are trying to explain that the minimum wage of the 1960s went further than it does today.

It’s true that roughly 20 percent of hourly workers earn less than $10.03 an hour.

And this handy chart published by the New York Times shows that the minimum wage in 1968 was worth about $10.60 in 2013 dollars, but that it dipped below $8.11 in 1982 and has been on the decline ever since.

The Verdict

Hoffman and his DFL colleges have their facts right.

ADDITIONAL SOURCES

Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, information about Minnesota’s minimum wage

National Conference of State Legislatures, State minimum wages