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20 U.S. states to increase minimum wage in 2017: report

Xinhua, December 31, 2016 Adjust font size:

Twenty U.S. states and the District of Columbia will raise their minimum wages at the start of 2017, boosting pay for about 4.4 million low-wage workers across the country, local media reported Friday.

The District of Columbia will raise its minimum wage by one U.S. dollar to 12.5 dollars an hour, the highest level in the country, while the state of California will increase the minimum wage by 50 cents to 10.5 dollars an hour, a move that affects about 1.7 million workers, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In the state of Arizona, the minimum wage will go up 1.95 dollars to 10 dollars an hour, the biggest jump among the 20 states and one of the largest one-time increases ever enacted, the report said.

As U.S. labor market inches closer to full employment, low-income workers around the country continue to push states and businesses for an increased minimum wage.

In all, about 4.4 million U.S. low-wage workers are slated to receive a raise in 2017 because they earn less than the new minimum in their respective states, the report said, citing research from the Economic Policy Institute.

U.S. President Barack Obama has proposed raising the federal minimum wage to 10.10 dollars per hour from the current rate of 7.25 dollars for several years, but Republican lawmakers have so far blocked those efforts, saying it will add to the operating costs of business owners.

However, economists at the Peterson Institute for International Economics argued that raising the pay of the lowest-paid U.S. private-sector workers "would not only reduce income inequality but also boost overall productivity growth, with likely minimum effect on employment in the current financial context."

It's unclear whether the minimum wage increase across the country will help push up U.S. inflation to rise to the Federal Reserve's target of 2 percent, which could prompt the central bank to raise interest rates at a faster pace next year.

Fed officials earlier this month predicted that there would be three rate hikes next year, up from two rate hikes estimated in September. Enditem