UC Davis

Abstract

The literature on the link between racial attitudes and policy preferences has producedextensive evidence that racial attitudes do play a role in shaping policy preferences on a wide range of issues. But why should we expect racial attitudes to influence minimum wage policy preferences specifically? We have historical evidence that when the minimum wage was first established at the federal level with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) of 1938, there were racist motivations behind the provisions included in a facially race-neutral policy, specifically with regard to who was excluded from the minimum wage and other labor protections, including maximum working hours and overtime pay. To appease southern Democrats whose economies depended on the exploitation and subordination of Black workers, agricultural and domestic workers, labor sectors that were predominantly occupied by black workers, were exempt from these new federal labor protections (Linder 1987; Perea 2011). In the lead up to the passage of the 1938 FSLA, some opponents of the legislation explicitly communicated the racist motivation behind their opposition. Comments like those of Martin Dies of Texas who stated, “what is prescribed for one race must be prescribe to the others, and you cannot prescribe the same wages for the black man as for the white man” and Edward Cox of Georgia who expressed that the FSLA would “render easier the elimination and disappearance of racial and social distinctions” serve to illustrate such motivations behind opposition to establishing a federal minimum wage in the U.S. (quoted in Perea 2011, 115-116). There is evidence that in the early history of the federal minimum wage in the U.S., racial attitudes, at least with respect to lawmakers, racial attitudes helped shape preferences on minimum wage legislation. While groups that were historically excluded from minimum wage and other labor protections have gradually been covered as the FSLA was updated and amended— though many vulnerable workers remain excluded form FSLA protections— are current minimum wage policy preferences still influenced by racial attitudes?

This dissertation analyzes whether and how race and ethnicity impact policy preferencesand attitudes on minimum wage increases. Chapter 1 draws on literature that examines how and why racial and ethnic attitudes shape preferences on a range of welfare policy issues to analyze whether and how racial and ethnic attitudes impact white support for minimum wage increases at the federal level. Using Alesina and Glaeser (2004) and Callaghan and Olson (2017), I theorize that white individuals perceive the minimum wage as primarily impacting Black and Latino populations, and combined with negative conceptions of Black people and Latinos, such associations lead to lower levels of support for minimum wage increases. Using 2016 Cooperative Congressional Election Study survey data, I find evidence that among white people, those holding more negative attitudes toward Black people and those who hold more restrictive immigration views are less likely to support minimum wage increases. Partisanship and ideology are also predictors of minimum wage preferences.

Chapter 2 turns to preferences on state-level minimum wage increases and applies intergroupconflict theory and intergroup contact theory to analyze whether racial and ethnic context impacts the level of support for state-level minimum wage increases. In this chapter, I test two competing hypotheses: conflict theory suggests that larger Black and Latino populations reduces support for minimum wage increases among white people while contact theory suggest that larger Black and Latino populations increases support for minimum wage increases. To test these competing hypotheses, I collected county-level data on state-level minimum wage increase measures’ margin of victory and on demographic characteristics. I find that a higher percentage of Black people is associated with larger minimum wage approval margins, supporting contact theory, and that a higher percentage of Latinos in a county is associated with lower minimum wage approval margins, supporting conflict theory. Here, I also find that more Democratic counties had higher minimum wage approval margins.

Finally, chapter 3 focuses on white perceptions of the potential impact of federal minimumwage increases on income inequality. Scholars have argued that the minimum wage as an issue, and in particular the effects of minimum wage increases, should be conceived and analyzed in terms of justice and equality. I analyze attitudes on the minimum wage in terms of its potential to reduce economic inequality, an issue of justice and equality given that increases and expansions in who qualifies have been found to have reduced wage and income inequality along racial lines. I ask if racial and ethnic attitudes impact whether whites believe that minimum wage increases would reduce income inequality and argue that those holding more negative views of Latino and Black populations are less likely to believe that minimum wage increases reduce economic inequality. Using survey data from Pew Research’s American Trends Panel, I find limited evidence that racial and ethnic attitudes are associated with beliefs about the potential of minimum wage increases to reduce income inequality among white people. I also find limited evidence that partisanship and ideology play a role in shaping these views.