A 64 percent majority of hiring and human resource managers think the minimum wage should be raised in their states, according to a new online Harris Poll commissioned by CareerBuilder. That's a slight increase from the 62 percent who said the same thing last year.
In the poll, released Friday, just over a quarter of the managers said they worked at firms that had hired minimum-wage workers this year. Among that group, 69 percent said they wanted the wage increased.
“As big name brands take measures to increase pay for minimum wage workers and the market overall grows more competitive for skilled labor, employers are going to start feeling more wage pressure when trying to attract and retain employees at all levels within the organization," Rosemary Haefner, the chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder, said in a statement.
The vast majority of the representatives of the firms surveyed believe that $7.25, the current federal hourly minimum wage, isn't fair, with more than 60 percent saying it should be increased to $10 or more. Just a small fraction, however, supported the idea of a $15 minimum wage -- a proposal that has the backing of many labor groups, including the Service Employees International Union.
Other polls have found a similar divide in the nation as a whole. While a majority of the public backs a $10.10 minimum wage, according to a July YouGov poll, support for a $15 wage remains lower, with Republicans substantially more likely to oppose the greater amount.
The CareerBuilder poll also found that Americans in minimum wage jobs mostly find it difficult to make ends meet. Just 33 percent of those who work at the minimum wage now, or who have done so in the past, said that they were able to make ends meet financially. Nearly half said they needed to take more than one job to stay afloat.
The survey used an online panel to reach 2,321 hiring and human resource managers in the private sector ages 18 and over, and 3,039 full-time private-sector employees ages 18 and over, between May 14 and June 3.