The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center has released a report showing both low wage and middle income workers benefited from the state’s minimum wage increase.
The report found from 2014 to 2015, hourly pay went up 7 percent for low wage workers and 3 percent for middle income workers.
Noah Berger, president of the Budget and Policy Center, credits the minimum wage increase that took effect that year.
“And that minimum wage increase also has effects on incomes just above that,” said Berger. “Because of the way wage scales work, when the floor comes up, wages above that go up as well.”
In other words, a rising tide raises all boats.
Massachusetts’ minimum wage is slated to go to $11 an hour in 2017. Berger would like to see it go higher — up a dollar a year until it gets to $15 an hour