Increasing the national minimum wage to $15 per an hour and improving the overall standard of living for minimum wage workers by providing them with a more appropriate income level to handle cost of living increases.

The benefits of gradually phasing in a $15 minimum wage by 2024 would be far-reaching, lifting pay for tens of millions of workers and reversing decades of growing pay inequality. Gradually raising the federal minimum wage to $15 would lift pay for nearly 40 million workers— 26.6 percent of the U.S. workforce. A $15 minimum wage by 2024 would generate $120 billion in higher wages for workers and would also benefit their communities. Because lower-paid workers spend much of their extra earnings, this injection of wages will help stimulate the economy and spur greater business activity and job growth. A higher minimum wage would reduce government welfare spending. If low-income workers earned more money, their dependence on, and eligibility for, government benefits would decrease. Increasing the minimum wage would increase worker productivity and reduce employee turnover. Increases in wages are associated with increased productivity, according to many economists. Increasing the minimum wage could help reduce gender- and race-based income inequality. If the minimum wage is raised, it would result in people of different races having fair wages based on their skill and work. Raising the federal minimum wage could raise more than 900,000 households out of poverty in the U.S. A majority of Americans, including a slim majority of self-described conservatives, support increasing the minimum wage.