Most state jobs well over minimum wage, study says
BOISE – Roughly 86 percent of Idaho jobs pay more than $7.25 an hour, at least $2.10 more than the state’s minimum wage, according to a study by the Idaho Commerce and Labor Department.
Only about two out of every 15 jobs – or about 80,100 across the state – paid between Idaho’s minimum wage rate of $5.15 an hour and $7.25 an hour during 2005, according to the study.
Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, who requested the study, said the findings were about what she expected. Ringo said she is working with other lawmakers to push for a higher minimum wage during the 2007 legislative session.
“As a matter of fairness, it’s something we should address,” Ringo said. “I think we value the work that people do for us, and if they come in and work hard and do the job they’re asked to do, they should get a meaningful amount of pay for it.”
Idaho’s minimum wage has been at the federal level of $5.15 an hour for about 10 years. A state bill to increase the wage to $6.15 an hour – and mandate yearly increases tied to inflation – died in a House committee this spring because some lawmakers feared it would lead to higher prices, increase unemployment rates and reduce incentives for low-paid workers to improve themselves.
The Commerce and Labor study found that it would cost about $26.7 million a year to bring all lower-paid jobs in Idaho up to $6.15 an hour, or about $142.5 million to make sure that Idaho’s lowest-paid workers were earning at least $7.25 an hour.
That’s a small price compared with the statewide payroll of $19 billion, Ringo said.
“We’ll go for at least $7 and maybe $7.25 next year,” Ringo said. “I’ve looked at other states – 18 have increased minimum wages moving out in front of the federal government – and because of having workers be more motivated, there’s higher productivity and lower absence rates, so some of those improvements have mitigated the costs.”
But Rep. Steve Smylie, R-Boise, said a minimum wage increase would actually hurt Idaho’s lowest-paid workers by forcing some of them out of jobs.
“It’s hard to say this correctly, but there are folks that employers are willing to take a chance on at that lower wage that they would simply not give a chance if they had to pay them more,” Smylie said. “When you’re dealing with young people starting out, or people with no skills or people who just want to work part time, you have to give those people a place to start, too. It’s terrible to have to work in a minimum wage job, but it’s worse to be unemployed.”
A proposal to increase the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour stalled this year in Congress, after Republicans tied the minimum wage bill to one that would cut the federal estate tax.