Research: As Wages Rise, Crime Falls

Efforts to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour are picking up steam, with California and New York approving plans to phase in the wage. Research is showing a higher wage could have benefits that reach far beyond families’ monthly budgets as well. A report by the White House Council of Economic Advisors finds raising the federal minimum wage would lead to reductions in crime.
Rebecca Vallas, the managing director of the Poverty to Prosperity Program with the Center for American Progress, said expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), to include adults without dependents could cut crime rates even further.
“Policies that raise wages, whether raising the minimum wage or expanding the EITC, ideally both, because those two policies go hand in hand, can both prevent recidivism and lower the rate of first-time offenses,” she said.
Tennessee’s minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, but advocates say that’s not nearly enough for families to make ends meet. The Center for American Progress said an estimated 70-100 million Americans have criminal records, and nearly half of all children have a parent with a criminal record.
Vallas said it seems logical enough, if people make enough to make ends meet, they’re less likely to take desperate measures that land them in jail, with lifelong consequences.
“That really means that now, research shows that a comprehensive criminal justice reform agenda must not only include addressing barriers to employment for workers with criminal records, it should also include policies to ensure that jobs pay a fair living wage,” she added.
Twenty-nine states, the District of Columbia, and some cities have raised their minimum wages above the federal level of $7.25 per hour. Residents of the remaining 21 states have been stuck at $7.25 for seven years.