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The proportion of hourly-paid workers earning the prevailing Federal minimum wage or less declined from 6.0 percent in 2010 to 5.2 percent in 2011. This remains well below the figure of 13.4 percent in 1979, when data were first collected on a regular basis.
Nearly four million Americans earn the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.[][][][][][][][][][][]More than half of fast food workers have to rely on public assistance programs since their wages aren't enough to support them, a new report found.According to a University of California Berkeley Labor Center and University of Illinois study out Tuesday, 52% of families of fast food workers receive assistance from a public program like Medicaid, food stamps, the Earned Income Tax Credit and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. That's compared to 25% of families in the workforce as a whole.The report estimated that this public aid carries a $7 billion price tag for taxpayers each year[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]Median hourly wage for fast-food workers nationwide:$8.94/hourIncrease in real median wages for food service workers since 1999:$0.10/hourLast time the federal minimum wage exceeded $8.94/hour (in 2012 dollars):1968Change in the real value of the minimum wage since 1968:-22%Median age of fast-food workers:29Median age of female fast-food workers:32Percentage of fast-food workers who are women:65%Percentage of fast-food workers older than 20 who have kids:36%Income of someone earning $8.94/hour:$18,595/yearFederal poverty line for a family of three:$17,916/yearIncome of someone earning $15/hour:$31,200/yearIncome needed for a "secure yet modest" living for a family with two adults and one child…In the New York City area: $77,378/year In rural Mississippi: $47,154/year[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]Higher wages, he said, would make employers more selective of the individuals they do hire, which would increase competition for minimum-wage jobs. "The problem is many immigrants will be the victims - the least-skilled workers will be the first people laid off," Moore told Al Jazeera.Maria Enchautegui, a senior researcher with the Urban Institute, disagrees that wage raises will cut job opportunities for Latino migrants, but she points out that some undocumented migrants will not see the benefits of reform because many work in the underground economy."Many undocumented immigrants remain vulnerable. They do not report wage violations because they fear losing their jobs, or worse," Enchautegui said.About 42 percent of undocumented migrants do not have high school diplomas, according to the Urban Institute, and Enchautegui said this, combined with low-language skills and fear of deportation, makes migrants vulnerable to exploitation by employers.An estimated 11.7 million undocumented immigrants lived in the US in 2012, a number that appears to be rising, according to the Pew Research Center.[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]Support for a higher minimum wage in the polls is also aided by the way the question is typically framed. For example, a recent Reason-Rupe Poll of 1,003 American adults found that 67 percent of respondents supported raising the minimum wage when the question was: “The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Do you favor or oppose raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour?”However, when the question was changed to: “What about if raising the minimum wage caused some employers to lay off workers or hire fewer workers? Would you favor or oppose raising the minimum wage?” support for raising the minimum wage dropped to 39 percent with 58 percent opposed.If the question was phrased as: “What about if raising the minimum wage caused some employers to raise prices? Would you favor or oppose raising the minimum wage?” the results were split with 51 percent in favor and 46 percent opposed to raising the minimum wage. This is a statistical tie given the poll’s margin of error of +/- 3.6 percent.[][][][][][][][][][][]................asked people how they thought businesses would pay for an increase in the minimum wage, 38 percent of respondents expected business to raise prices, 32 percent thought some workers would lose their jobs, while only 24 percent thought the increase would be paid for by either lower corporate profit or reduced executive salaries.[][][][][][][][][][][][]In 2011, 73.9 million American workers age 16 and over were paid at hourly rates, representing 59.1 percent of all wage and salary workers.1 Among those paid by the hour, 1.7 million earned exactly the prevailing Federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. About 2.2 million had wages below the minimum.2 Together, these 3.8 million workers with wages at or below the Federal minimum made up 5.2 percent of all hourly-paid workers. Tables 1 through 10 present data on a wide array of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics for hourly-paid workers earning at or below the Federal minimum wage. The following are some highlights from the 2011 data. Minimum wage workers tend to be young. Although workers under age 25 represented only about one-fifth of hourly-paid workers, they made up about half of those paid the Federal minimum wage or less. Among employed teenagers paid by the hour, about 23 percent earned the minimum wage or less, compared with about 3 percent of workers age 25 and over. (See table 1 and table 7.) About 6 percent of women paid hourly rates had wages at or below the prevailing Federal minimum, compared with about 4 percent of men. (See table 1.) About 5 percent of White hourly-paid workers earned the Federal minimum wage or less, compared with about 6 percent of Blacks and about 3 percent of Asians. Among hourly-paid workers of Hispanic ethnicity, about 5 percent earned the minimum wage or less. (See table 1.) Among hourly-paid workers age 16 and over, about 11 percent of those who had less than a high school diploma earned the Federal minimum wage or less, compared with about 5 percent of those who had a high school diploma (with no college) and about 2 percent of college graduates. (See table 6.)[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]By major occupational group, the highest proportion of hourly-paid workers earning at or below the Federal minimum wage was in service occupations, at 13 percent. About 6 in 10 workers earning the minimum wage or less in 2011 were employed in service occupations, mostly in food preparation and serving related jobs. (See table 4.) The industry with the highest proportion of workers with hourly wages at or below the Federal minimum wage was leisure and hospitality (22 percent). About one-half of all workers paid at or below the Federal minimum wage were employed in this industry, primarily in restaurants and other food services. For many of these workers, tips and commissions supplement the hourly wages received. (See table 5.)
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Topic: Wandering mini wage (Read 803 times)
