2016-2017

MINIMUM WAGE
Source: EPI analysis of American Community Survey microdata, 2014.
The majority of workers (nearly 53 percent) who will receive an increase are women, a third have
children, and 45 percent of female single parents would benefit. Low-income households would
benefit disproportionately from the minimum wage increase. More than a third (37 percent) of
affected workers are in families either in poverty or “near poverty” (with income less than 200
percent of the federal poverty line.) Over three-fourths of all workers in or near poverty would get
a raise. 17
Low-wage workers who stand to benefit are found in every sector of New York’s economy. Three
sectors would see gains for over 400,000 workers: retail trade, restaurants (including fast-food
chains already subject to the state’s wage order for that industry), and the group of human service
workers and care providers in the home-based and residential care, social assistance and child care
sector.
17
Ibid.
New York State Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2016-2017 | 15