Just years after labor activists persuaded a handful of states to raise their minimum wage to $15 per hour, workers initially thrilled with the pay bump are finding their hard-won gains erased by inflation.
New York City resident Anthony Rivera, 20, who sorts packages at a United Parcel Service facility in Brooklyn, said he had to take a second job at a grocery store after his food costs soared.
“I was sitting at $15 an hour at UPS, and when it came to paying bills and buying groceries, it was starting to become not enough,” he said. “That led me to no other option than to pick up another job.”
New York, California and Massachusetts are among states where pro-labor forces are now pushing proposals that, if approved, would boost minimum wages to $20 or more in the coming years.
Inflation has meant that something that cost $15 in 2012 — when labor activists adopted the “Fight for $15” slogan in a push for wage hikes — would probably cost almost $20 today, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But opponents to the wage hikes say they can be detrimental to small businesses, which already took a major hit during the coronavirus pandemic.
Cindy Lee, the owner of a bowling alley in Endicott, New York, said she’s struggling to pay off loans taken out during the pandemic that kept her business afloat.
“All this cost all at once is just going to kill us. I definitely will have to cut corners somewhere with...
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