Delaware’s minimum wage is now $11.75 per hour – a step closer towards the General Assembly’s plan to reach a $15 minimum wage by 2025.
But while the employment and market impacts of minimum wage increases are usually closely tracked, Delaware’s Department of Labor says it is exceptionally difficult to draw any correlations between changes in the job market and the increasing minimum wage as the state recovers from the pandemic - and the related recession and subsequent labor shortage.
Office of Occupational and Labor Market Data Chief Thomas Dougherty says while a higher minimum wage may have resulted in higher pay for those earning a few dollars above minimum wage, the ongoing labor shortage and cost-of-living increases could also be responsible for that effect.
“How much is your wage rate because you’re being pushed up from the bottom?" he asked. "Or how much is it because of inflationary pressures? That is, workers bargaining for higher wages to make up for the losses they’re getting due to inflation."
Meanwhile, the number of people earning minimum wage – about 14 percent – is roughly the same as before the pandemic.
And while the number of people working in hospitality – one of the sectors with the highest share of minimum-wage workers – still hasn’t returned to its pre-pandemic peak, Dougherty says there isn’t any simple way to track the impact of the minimum wage change on that sector’s recovery.
The number of workers in Delaware excluded from minimum wage protections, including agricultural workers, appears to have fallen during the pandemic.
