More women favor hiking the minimum wage to $15 dollars, according to a new survey.
Roughly 60% of women support raising the minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour, compared to just 45% of men, across all income levels.
The survey, from wage data site Payscale.com, comes just as Democrats confront the GOP over the minimum wage as a part of their election-year push on economic inequality, and both parties fight to sway women voters for the midterms.
Wealthier women—59% of those making more than $100,000 a year and 67% of those making more than $200,000 a year—were particularly likely to support a minimum wage hike, while wealthier men—42% of those making more than $100,000 a year and 35% of those making above $200,000 a year—opposed the hike.
After being bruised by the botched roll-out of Obamacare, Democrats turned to the minimum wage to focus on for the 2014 midterm elections, in an attempt to capitalize on a growing populist streak in Americans. They tabled the debate in order directly target women’s pay inequality with the Paycheck Fairness Act, which was defeated by Senate Republicans earlier this month. This survey indicates that women will also side with Democrats on the minimum wage debate Democrats will likely push this spring. The one exception to the gender divide was with lower income men—those who made less than $25,000 a year and were likely earning closer to the minimum wage than the rest of the men surveyed—overwhelmingly supported a hike, with 72% of men supporting a $15 minimum wage compared to 69% of women who supported the same.
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