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Wyoming among top ten states that pay lowest wages but changes may be more complicated than numbers suggest

A color-coded map of the United States, rendered in reds, oranges and yellows
Courtesy of Oxfam

Wyoming ranks ninth in the nation for the highest percentage of workers who receive less than $17 dollars an hour. That's according to a study by Oxfam International, a global organization fighting poverty and inequality.

While that may sound troubling, the big picture is more complicated. Anne Alexander is an economics professor at the University of Wyoming. She said that some business leaders and elected officials tend to worry about wage-price spiral, which can cause prices for goods and services to spike and spiral out of control, as some say it did in the 1970's.

"Prices for all goods had to go up at a very rapid rate as well," Alexander said. "That meant that workers needed more raises, and that meant that prices went up, and that meant that the workers needed more raises and so on and so on."

While the study may not mean doom and gloom for Wyoming's economy, it does point out a decades-long disparity between men and womens' earnings. Roughly 40 percent of working women in Wyoming earned less than $17 an hour. When race is factored into the equation, the picture grows more grim, as about 73 percent of black women earn low wages.

But Alexander said that raising wages too quickly may hurt employers, the labor market, and even local economies.

"If your costs have to go up, profits get squeezed," she said. "So you may have to hire fewer workers."

That could impact Wyoming's unemployment numbers, which have held steady between 2.8 and three percent for the past 15 months. Employers may still offer higher wages to attract job-seekers.

Most of the states that made the list's top ten adhere to the federal minimum wage, which sits at $7.25 an hour. Mississippi topped that list, followed by Arkansas—an anomaly that offers $11 an hour—and Oklahoma. The Raise the Wage Act of 2023 suggests that the federal minimum wage should be $17 an hour by 2028.

This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.

David Dudley is an award-winning journalist who has written for The Guardian, The Christian Science Monitor, High Country News, WyoFile, and the Wyoming Truth, among many others. David was a Guggenheim Crime in America Fellow at John Jay College from 2020-2023. During the past 10 years, David has covered city and state government, business, economics and public safety beats for various publications. He lives in Cheyenne with his family.

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