The current population survey estimates that over 75 million workers in America over the age of 16 were paid at hourly rates. This represents over 60% of all wage and salary workers. Among those paid by the hour, 300,000 earned exactly the prevailing minimum wage. About 2 Million had wages below the minimum. These workers with wages at or below the minimum make up 3% of all hourly paid workers. Below is a list of a wide variety of characteristics for hourly paid workers earning at or below minimum wages.
Minimum wage workers tend to always be young. Workers under the age of 25, represent 20% of hourly paid workers. These workers make up half of those paid minimum wage or less. Of all teenagers paid by the hour, about 10% earn the minimum, or less, as compared to about 2% of workers over the age of 25. Among hourly paid workers age 16 and over, about 5% have less than a high school education and earning minimum wage or less compared to at least 3% of those with a high school diploma.
The majority of workers who earn the minimum, did not vary much across race and ethnic groups. About 3% White, Black, and Hispanic hourly-paid workers earned minimum wage or less. Among Asian workers, about 2% earned the minimum. About 4% of women and 2% of men, had wages at or below the minimum. Part Time workers, who worked 35 hours per week or less, are more likely than full-time workers, to be paid minimum wage or less. Young unmarried workers were more likely than married workers to earn the minimum wage or less.
The highest proportion of workers who earned the current or below minimum wage are in service occupations. About 7 out of 10 workers earning the minimum wage or below, were mostly in food preparation and service related jobs. About 60% of all workers paid at or below the minimum were employed in the leisure and hospitality, primarily in food service and drinking establishments. For many of these workers, tips and commission supplement the hourly wage they received.
The states with the highest proportion of hourly-paid workers, earning below the minimum are Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi. The states with the lowest amount of workers at or below the minimum, was California, Oregon, and Alaska.
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*Note: The information included in this report was partly obtained through B.L.S. Labor Force Statistics.
D. Hamilton -
About the Author: David Hamilton
My family and I live in a suburb of Las Vegas, Nevada. I have retired from the gaming industry where I worked in casino management for the past 20 years. Prior to that I owned my own manufacturing company for 6 years. Before that I had top management and engineering positions going back to the Apollo and Space Shuttle projects. Now that I have retired, I am starting to get an internet marketing business off the ground. This is my first attempt at a blog, but I realize I will need one to become successful in internet marketing. That is why I joined Wealthy Affiliate University. They offer everything required to succeed in internet marketing, I have already seen the benefits starting to pay off after the short time since I joined. I highly recommend signing up with Wealthy Affiliate for anyone who wants to achieve internet marketing success.