Bombur
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- Jan 9, 2014
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Families living off the minimum wage just isn't the issue that liberal like to make it out to be. If you are married with children and trying to pay a mortgage on the minimum wage, you've made some dreadfully bad mistakes in life. Even teenagers starting out at minimum wage get a bump in pay after a probation period.
Who makes minimum wage? | Pew Research Center
Perhaps surprisingly, not very many people earn minimum wage, and they make up a smaller share of the workforce than they used to. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, last year 1.566 million hourly workers earned the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour; nearly two million more earned less than that because they fell under one of several exemptions (tipped employees, full-time students, certain disabled workers and others), for a total of 3.55 million hourly workers at or below the federal minimum.
That group represents 4.7% of the nations 75.3 million hourly-paid workers and 2.8% of all workers. In 1979, when the BLS began regularly studying minimum-wage workers, they represented 13.4% of hourly workers and 7.9% of all wage and salary workers. (Bear in mind that the 3.55 million figure doesnt include salaried workers. But BLS says relatively few salaried workers are paid at what would translate into below-minimum hourly rates. Also, 19 states besides the District have minimum wages higher than the federal standard; people whod be minimum-wage workers in those states arent included in the 3.55 million total.)
People at or below the federal minimum are:
■Disproportionately young: 50.6% are ages 16 to 24; 24% are teenagers (ages 16 to 19).
■Mostly (78%) white; fully half are white women.
■Largely part-time workers (64% of the total).
They work in industries that you might expect: Just over half (51%) work in the leisure and hospitality industry, about 16% in retail, 9% in education and health services, and the rest scattered among different sectors. Broken down occupationally, the picture is similar: Nearly 44% are in food-preparation and serving-related occupations; 15% are in sales and related occupations, and the rest are scattered.
An increase in the min wage would impact a lot more people than those making the min now.
Opinion and conjecture do not make it so.
What about basic arithmetic?