By Alí Bustamante, Ph.D.
For many decades, the U.S. Catholic bishops have suggested minimum wage increases as a key contribution to human dignity and protecting the rights of workers.[1] Research published earlier this month finds strong empirical evidence that state minimum wage increases not only benefit workers directly but also reduce crime, thereby further serving the common good. The authors estimate that a $1 increase in state minimum wages is associated with a 4 percent decrease in recidivism as ex-offenders are drawn into the formal labor market and away from property and drug crimes.[2]
The societal and economic benefits from reduced recidivism are likely to be greater in the Gulf South. Since 1998, Louisiana has had the highest incarceration rate among the 50 states. Similarly, most recently available data show that Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, and Florida ranked third, fourth, seventh, and tenth in highest incarceration rates in the country.[3] Of the five states in the Gulf South, only Florida has a state minimum wage above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.[4]
In Catholic social thought, the principle of a just wage holds that wages must allow workers to support themselves, their families, and the common good.[5] Exoffenders are not exempt from these considerations, and their right to human dignity must not be abandoned.