Blog Posts  (Page3)

From the beginning of California’s fast food wage hike, EPI and others have been tracking the fallout from the state’s  “crappiest law”. While Governor Gavin Newsom has been claiming the law is “good for California,” government data has shown the opposite: the law has caused early job losses, as…

We’ve seen this movie before. Cities raise wages with good intentions, jobs quietly disappear, and workers are left with fewer opportunities. Now Chicago is following the same script and new EPI analysis shows that their ending may be just as bleak. In 2023, lawmakers passed a bill to phase out…

The first week of July marks the height of summer, and it also brings a wave of minimum wage increases at the state and local level. For teenagers hoping to earn extra money before the school year begins, higher wages might seem appetizing. However, a new EPI analysis of Census…

Earlier this week, anti-tip credit activists at One Fair Wage rallied with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to claim the city’s tip credit elimination law has been nothing but positive for the Windy City. Yet their claims – and report to match – use flawed and incomplete data to make that…

Sen. Josh Hawley recently proposed a bill that would increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 by 2026, arguing that if  “woke corporations…can afford to pay their CEOs millions, they can afford to pay working Americans a decent wage.” On paper, it’s a push for higher pay…

California has spent years enacting some of the most aggressive minimum wage increases in the nation. New labor data now suggests that these wage policies are starting to take a toll on the state’s youngest workers. In April 2025, California ranked among the top five states in unemployment rates as…

Ahead of a planned hearing on Mayor Muriel Bowser’s budget proposal to repeal Initiative 82 – the current law eliminating DC’s tip credit – DC’s Office of the Budget Director released a report claiming DC’s restaurant industry “remains healthy” under tip credit elimination. But the latest data show that isn’t…

Candidates, lawmakers, and activists alike are pushing New York to raise its minimum wage – but the Empire State’s history of wage hikes has slashed employment over the last decade. Lawmakers should learn the state’s history before proposing laws that would repeat the same consequences for businesses and their employees.

It’s no secret AB 1228 – California’s $20 fast food minimum wage law – has caused thousands of job losses and pushed restaurants to close or leave the state. Now, new analysis shows that even workers who kept their jobs after the new law still saw their scheduled hours shrink.

One Fair Wage and supporters of Initiative 82 claimed tip credit elimination was necessary to create more “fair” and “stable” wages for the District’s tipped restaurant staff. Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows since Initiative 82 went into effect in May 2023, restaurant and bar workers have lost $11.8…