Minimum wage hike would aid 17%
But Utah analysis unlikely to lead to efforts for change
The analysis, released Thursday, found that a minimum-wage hike would directly impact 71,000 Utah workers who earn $7 an hour or less. Another 99,000 would be indirectly affected by the "spillover effect" of an increase.
Researchers looked at both minimum-wage earners and low-wage workers to determine the cost of a proposed increase to at least $7 an hour.
It's unlikely, though, that the report will actually lead to any efforts at the state level to increase the current $5.15 minimum wage. Utah is one of some two dozen states with a minimum rate that mirrors the federal minimum wage, which hasn't been increased since 1997.
The new, Democrat-led Congress is expected to take up the issue during its first 100 hours after reconvening on Jan. 4, and Utah officials this week say they are inclined to let any wage increase be taken care of at the federal level.
Huntsman, who created the minimum wage working group more than a year ago to look at a possible increase to the state's rate, "will contact members of Utah's congressional delegation and urge them to support raising the minimum wage," said Mike Mower, the governor's spokesman.
"The study reflected a huge division in the philosophies regarding minimum wage," said Valentine, R-Orem. "The one thing it convinced me of personally is that minimum wage needs to be done on a national basis."
Nationally, 2 million workers, or 2.5 percent of the U.S. work force, earn minimum wage or less. In Utah, 94,000 people worked for minimum wage or less in 1999, according to 2000 Census data. Child-care workers, waiters and waitresses and teaching assistants are most likely to receive minimum wage, according to the research from the University of Utah's Center for Public Policy and Administration.
A minimum wage worker in Utah earns, on average, $893 per month, according to the report. If the rate were raised to $7 an hour, the same person would earn a monthly income of $1,213.
Chairwoman Pamela Atkinson said the release of the report marks the end of the minimum wage working group, which will not make any formal recommendations on the issue. Group members were unable to come to a consensus, she said, with some wanting state lawmakers to raise the rate as a symbolic gesture.
Others, like Rep. Michael Morley, R-Spanish Fork, want the Legislature to take no action at all. An opponent of any minimum wage, Morley said Thursday's report failed to convince him that many Utahns would benefit from a wage hike.
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