---
title: "Polls show strong support for minimum wage hike"
description: "According to recent polls, one issue on which Obama can count on strong public support is his call for raising the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10."
date: "2014-03-04"
authors:
  - name: "Bruce Drake"
    job_title: "Former Senior Editor"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/bruce-drake/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/03/04/polls-show-strong-support-for-minimum-wage-hike/"
categories:
  - "Business & Workplace"
  - "Economic Policy"
---

# Polls show strong support for minimum wage hike

President Obama [sends his fiscal 2015 budget](http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget) to Congress today filled with proposals aimed at contrasting Democratic economic approaches with those of Republicans. While many of those proposals may fall by the wayside in the GOP-controlled House during this midterm election year, one issue on which Obama can count on strong public support is his call for raising the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10.

Half of all adults say they would be more likely to vote for a congressional candidate who supports increasing the minimum wage, according to a [Washington Post/ABC News poll](http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/03/04/National-Politics/Polling/question_13274.xml?uuid=XNJodqNaEeO4ZTiyVNkgYw) conducted Feb. 27-Mar.2. About three-in-ten (28%) said a candidate’s stance on the issue wouldn’t make much difference and 19% said they would be less likely to vote for a lawmaker who backed the wage hike.

[![](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2014/03/FT_Minimum_Wage.png)](http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/03/04/National-Politics/Polling/question_13274.xml?uuid=XNJodqNaEeO4ZTiyVNkgYw)

Democrats would be more likely than Republicans to vote for a wage hike backer by a 72% to 26% margin. Independents fall about in the middle with 50% saying they’d be more likely to support a candidate who backs the hike, compared with 30% who said it wouldn’t make much difference and 19% who would be less likely to vote for* *such a candidate.

A [Pew Research Center survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2014/01/23/most-see-inequality-growing-but-partisans-differ-over-solutions/) conducted last month found strong support for increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, with 73% of those surveyed in favor.

When Obama joins a group of Northeastern governors on Wednesday in Connecticut to [push for the wage hike](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/obama-push-minimum-wage-wednesday-conn-22733298), he will be going to a state where voters support an increase in a state-set minimum wage by a 71% to 25% margin, although only 42% would take it to $10.10, according to a new [Quinnipiac University survey](http://www.quinnipiac.edu/institutes-and-centers/polling-institute/connecticut/release-detail?ReleaseID=2015).

[Surveys in three other states](http://eagletonpollblog.wordpress.com/2014/03/04/results-of-a-joint-poll-with-siena-and-roanoke-released-today/) conducted among registered voters by a group of other polling institutions found about two-thirds or more backed the increase in Virginia (65%), New Jersey (69%) and New York (77%). (The polls were conducted by the Roanoke Institute for Policy and Opinion Research, Rutgers-Eagleton and the Siena Research Institute).