Starting January 1, South Dakota’s minimum wage will increase 20 cents – from $9.10 to $9.30 an hour. At the same time, research shows in almost every state, a worker now needs to earn more than $15 per hour to make ends meet.
Professor Amy Glasmeier at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a Living Wage Calculator. She says the tool uses specific data for each region and county to estimate the costs of food, child care, health care, housing, transportation and other necessities.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Glasmeier says three-quarters of the U-S population lives in counties where the average state minimum wage is about $2.50 more than the federal minimum.
She says people earning the minimum wage are constantly forced to juggle which bills to pay.
Glasmeier adds people who are single and caring for a child have the most difficulty surviving on the minimum wage.
In South Dakota, agriculture is the number-one industry and Glasmeier says the U-S and China trade war combined with weather extremes have been a drag on wages for farmers and others employed in the ag industry.
States with the highest minimum wage include California, Massachusetts and Washington at $12 per hour.
(Greater Dakota News Service)
