Wisconsin Department Of Workforce Development Determines $7.25/hour Is A Living Wage

From Jason Stein in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

The state law requires that Wisconsin’s minimum wage “shall not be less than a living wage.” …

A living wage is defined under the law as “reasonable comfort, reasonable physical well-being, decency and moral well-being.”

…”The department has determined that there is no reasonable cause to believe that the wages paid to the complainants are not a living wage,” Robert Rodriguez, administrator of DWD’s Equal Rights Division, wrote in the denial letter.

The letter, released yesterday, is here. Interestingly, I have not been able to locate this document on the DWD website. In addition, I have not been able to locate any statistical or other quantitative analysis justifying this assessment (as of 10PM Central, on 10/7).

The standard critique — that there would be substantial job loss as a consequence of the a minimum wage hike, as argued by the Wisconsin Restaurant Association [1] — were trotted out. As I have noted before, the theoretical effects can go either way, and there is some evidence that the minimum wage increase effects are either small negative, or even possibly positive, on employment. [2]

Note that the Federal poverty threshold in 2014 for a two person household is $15730/year. If one were to work 40 hours/week for 52 weeks/year at the Wisconsin minimum wage, then gross income would equal $15080.