Will North Carolina ever raise its minimum wage?

Zoom out: The minimum wage in our state is $7.25 per hour, the same as the federal minimum, and the same it’s been since 2009. Advocates for minimum wage increases say it would lift thousands of families out of poverty and reduce reliance on federal programs like SNAP.

Over the last few years, 29 states and the District of Columbia have raised their minimum wage.

“Assuming there’s no compromise at the federal level, the state level is going to be where it happens,” UNC Charlotte political science professor Eric Heberlig said of wage hikes.

Driving the news: These days, raising the $7.25 minimum “is something our budget writers are looking at,” says Pat Ryan, spokesperson for North Carolina Republican Senate leader Phil Berger. Lawmakers in Raleigh are in the early stages of putting the budget together.

In the coming weeks, there will be legislation filed to raise the minimum wage in North Carolina, state Sen. Jeff Jackson, a Democrat, tells me.

Why it matters: Although the share of workers making $7.25 an hour is relatively small, upping the minimum would have ripple effects on all low-wage workers, experts say. Charlotte, already grappling with income inequality, is growing rapidly, and it’s becoming increasingly harder to afford living here if you make a low hourly wage.

• Roughly 40 million workers nationwide make less than $15 an hour, according to the New York Times. About 60% are women, and a disproportionate number of them are Black and Latino.
• The N.C. Justice Center estimates that 1.3 million workers statewide would benefit from raising the minimum wage to $12 per hour. That includes 750,000 women.

“This seems to be one of the biggest levers you can pull to help the working class,” Jackson says.

Yes, but: North Carolina lawmakers have long opposed increasing the minimum wage, citing concerns over adverse effects on small businesses. And the GOP-controlled legislature prevents cities from raising their own minimum wages.

• HB2, or “the bathroom bill,” signed in 2016 and repealed a year later, included a provision forbidding municipalities from raising their own hourly wages. The measure that replaced HB2 still has that minimum wage restriction in it.

Republican House Speaker Tim Moore’s office has said that North Carolina is already a top-ranking state for wage growth without a mandated minimum pay hike.

• Specifically, Moore’s spokesperson Joseph Kyzer told WNCT in 2018, the general assembly’s “pro-growth approach to the state’s economy – lower taxes, reasonable regulations, smarter government investments” have helped bolster North Carolinians’ pay. Kyzer did not respond to a request for comment.

• Still, a few years ago N.C. lawmakers approved a $15 per hour minimum for state employees, becoming the first red state to make such a decision, per Governing.com.

In Charlotte, some businesses are taking matters into their own hands by paying workers a so-called “living wage.”

Jamie Brown and Jeff Tonidandel announced in late 2019 they would pay all of their employees a minimum of $12.37 per hour. This applies to all of their restaurants — Haberdish, Crepe Cellar Kitchen & Pub, Growlers Pourhouse, Reigning Doughnuts and Supperland.

• “This pay change is a unique way of helping Charlotte stand out and be a front runner in the state on raising employee pay,” the owners said in a statement.

At FS Food Group restaurants including Mama Ricotta’s, Little Mama’s and Paco’s, no one is paid under $12 an hour. “We just try to take care of our people,” Frank Scibelli says.

Raising employee pay is a competitive advantage, Heberlig said, and customers like knowing that businesses pay workers fairly. Customers and employees alike use social media to weigh in on how businesses fare when it comes to treatment of workers, he added.

“Social pressure through social media is probably a more important influence today than the politics or what’s going on in state legislatures,” Heberlig said.