EPI Research

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  The Job Loss Impact of a $17 Minimum Wage: As Many As 1.2 Million Jobs Lost

  July 2023

  Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed raising the federal minimum wage to $17 per hour, despite failing to receive support from members of his own party in 2021 for a nationwide $15 minimum wage bill. A large majority of economic research and American labor economists agree this proposal would have significant negative consequences for minimum wage employment. Using methodology developed by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office,…
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  Policy Brief: A $15 Minimum Wage in Pennsylvania Would Cost Nearly 86,000 Jobs

  June 2023

  Lawmakers in Harrisburg are proposing drastic changes to the state minimum wage. One such proposal, HB 1500, would raise the regular minimum wage up to $15.00 per hour, while also raising the tipped minimum wage to $9.00 per hour, a more-than 200 percent increase. A large majority of economic research and American labor economists agree this proposal would have significant negative consequences for employment, particularly…
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  The Case for the Tip Credit: June 2023

  June 2023

  The tipping system provides substantial earning opportunities for workers across many industries, especially restaurant servers and bartenders – well beyond the current minimum wage, and even beyond the proposed $15 minimum wage. Saving the tip credit is an employee-organized, bipartisan issue. Thousands of tipped workers across the country have pushed to save the tip credit, against the infringement of outside interests and activists. Employees have…
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  The Impact of Initiative 82: Survey of Restaurants on the Impact of Tip Credit Elimination in the District of Columbia

  April 2023

  Initiative 82, also known the “District of Columbia Tip Credit Elimination Act of 2022,” was passed in November 2022 and will go into effect beginning May 1, 2023. Initiative 82 will eliminate the tip credit by increasing the tipped minimum wage every year until 2027. Once finalized, the tipped minimum wage will match the standard minimum wage. To better understand the impact of increasing the…
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  Not So FAST: April 2023: Analyzing Labor Law Compliance at California Fast Food Restaurants

  April 2023

  A.B. 257, the “Fast Food Accountability and Standards (FAST) Recovery Act,” would create a new regulatory scheme for California’s fast food restaurant industry (“limited-service restaurant” or LSR, to use Census terminology).

  Subsequent to the passage of A.B. 257, over a million California voters signed a petition in support of a referendum on the law. The law will now appear on the 2024 ballot for…
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  State Impacts of a $15 Tipped Minimum Wage

  November 2022

  Since the Raise the Wage Act of 2021 failed in the U.S. Senate, fights over the minimum wage – especially for tipped restaurant employees – have moved to the states. Anti-tip credit activists have pledged to implement similar provisions at the state level, including eliminating states’ existing tip credit systems in favor of a flat $15 minimum wage. New analysis from Drs. William Even (Miami…