MANCHESTER – Recent polling confirms that New Hampshire voters, across demographics and political affiliations, overwhelmingly agree that it’s time for the U.S. Congress to raise the federal minimum to $15 an hour, with One Fair Wage for tipped workers.

On May 19 and May 20, 2021, in a poll commissioned by the Granite State Interfaith Action Fund, the New Hampshire Alliance for a Moral Economy, Public Policy Polling surveyed New Hampshire voters on their opinions about Congressional legislation to raise the federal minimum wage and to implement One Fair Wage for workers in tipped occupations.

Of all New Hampshire voters polled, 63% supported a gradual increase to the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025, with the majority of those respondents saying they “strongly support” the increase. A total of 56% of those polled supported an increase to the subminimum wage for tipped workers to $15 an hour by 2027, with 35% saying they “strongly supported” the measure.

The federal minimum wage has been frozen at $7.25 since 2009, while the unjust subminimum tipped wage–a legacy of slavery and the result of deliberate, racist exclusions in the Fair Labor Standards Act–has been frozen at $2.13 since 1991. In NH state law, the subminimum tipped wage is $3.27 per hour, and the NH House and Senate this session passed legislation freezing the wage at that level. Raising the subminimum tipped wage to One Fair Wage for workers in tipped jobs is an urgent racial and gender justice priority, as research shows women, and particularly women of color, fare better in states with One Fair Wage.

The Raise the Wage Act of 2021, which would gradually raise the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025 and would raise the tipped wage to One Fair Wage for tipped workers by 2027, would benefit nearly 32 million workers in total, which represents 21% of the U.S. workforce. In every part of the country, workers will need at least $15 per hour by 2025 to make ends meet, and in many places in the country, they already do.

New Hampshire is one of the 20 states stuck at the federal minimum wage of $7.25, which is far below what working people need to make ends meet.

“I have witnessed working families who have to turn to public assistance because they cannot support themselves on full time work. To afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent in New Hampshire, a worker needs to earn $23.43 an hour, according to the analysis by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. At $7.25 an hour, a worker would need to put in at least 129 hours a week to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment at $1,218. It’s time for our members of Congress to support the Raise the Wage Act,” said Tristan Husby, board president, Granite State Interfaith Action Fund.

The recent polling included New Hampshire voters across demographic categories like race, gender, income level, age, employment status, and political party affiliation. 31% of respondents identified themselves as members of the Democratic Party, while 27% identified themselves as members of the Republican Party, and 42% of respondents identified as independents.

These results reinforce the success of the Black-and-brown-worker-led Fight for $15 and a union movement and the overlapping One Fair Wage movement, and make it clear that the people of New Hampshire agree with their fellow voters around the country that Congress must pass a $15 minimum wage with One Fair Wage for workers in tipped occupations. It’s time for our representatives in Congress to heed the will of their constituents, including underpaid and tipped workers around the country, and pass the Raise the Wage Act of 2021.

Raise Up NH is an Initiative of the New Hampshire Alliance for a Moral Economy that unites faith, labor, and social justice advocates for the purpose of promoting improved economic conditions for working families.