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FACTS ON POLICY: Minimum Wage
March 6, 2007
In 2005, 1.5 percent of all wage and salaried workers received the federal minimum wage or lower.
That amounts to roughly 2 million people. Of that number,
• about half are under age 25
• less than one-quarter work full time (35 hours or more a week)
• three-fifths work in the food service industry, where, according to government reports, tips and commissions often supplement the hourly wages
• more than 70 percent are at least high school graduates
• two-thirds are women The percentage of people who earned the minimum wage or less has dropped from 7.9 percent of all wage and salary workers in 1979 to 1.5 percent of all wage and salary workers in 2005. Historical Data
The federal minimum wage was established in 1938. At that time, it was set at $.25/hour. The current minimum wage is $5.15/hour. In 2007, the House passed a bill to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 over the next two years.
Geographical Data
• Twenty-nine states mandate wages higher than the national minimum wage.
• Cities and counties may also establish minimum wages; the highest is in San Francisco, at $8.50 an hour.
• The South has the greatest portion of minimum wage workers: 42 percent of minimum-wage earners work in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, D.C, or West Virginia.
Figure 1
Percent of Wage and Salaried Workers Who Earn Minimum Wage and Minimum Wage Rates
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