3 ms·

Out of the 155.75 Million working Americans, 80.4 million make minimum wage. That's 51.6% (a majority) of workers making minimum wage. So yeah.

by RIMR 6y ago

SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
That isn't true. In 2017, 80.4 million Americans were paid hourly, and out of those only 1.8 million made minimum wage or below. (https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm# https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm#) More generally, I'd encourage you to question the mental model that made this sound like a potentially true claim in the first case. An economy where most people are paid minimum wage would be incredibly different than the one we actually have.
closeparen 6y ago
Per BLS, 80.4 million workers make an hourly wage, with 1.8 million at or below at the federal minimum. [0] It is kind of fascinating that people have such wildly different ideas about what the objective facts are, and how that must flow downstream into their worldviews and politics. Between 51.6% and 2.3% is not a small difference! Those are very different worlds we could be living in! [0] https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm#:~:text=The%20percentage%20of%20hourly%20paid,collected%20on%20a%20regular%20basis https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm#....
- A4ET8a8uTh0 6y ago
  It is fascinating and horrifying at the same time. On the one hand, I am hoping the person was simply quoting something they heard in a rant online. On the other hand, I am hoping it is just a case of misreading available BLS data. Neither is exactly ideal and both paint rather sad picture of how we interpret reality.
rsj_hn 6y ago
You are off by a factor of fifty. That's like confidently announcing that US median household income is 3.4 million, or declaring that the US has a population of 16 Billion people. How do you react when people hold such crazy views? Here is a recent BLS study called "Characteristics of minimum wage workers" https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2019/home.htm https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2019/home.htm "In 2019, 82.3 million workers age 16 and older in the United States were paid at hourly rates, representing 58.1 percent of all wage and salary workers. Among those paid by the hour, 392,000 workers earned exactly the prevailing federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. About 1.2 million had wages below the federal minimum. Together, these 1.6 million workers with wages at or below the federal minimum made up 1.9 percent of all hourly paid workers."
- ultrasaurus 6y ago
  Just eyeballing it looks like only 25% of the US population lives in states where the federal minimum wage is also the prevailing minimum wage: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/state https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/state So I'd guess closer to 10% of people make the minimum wage in their jurisdiction (1.9% x 4 + I assume more people make min wage when it's higher) Very interesting though that 3x as many people make below the min wage as actually earn the "minimum" wage.
  - rsj_hn 6y ago
    Those below the minimum wage are exempt workers such as waiters because they earn tips, and I guarantee you that their real income (on average) is much higher than minimum wage, but data is hard to come by as much of that income is unreported. Thus the 2% figure is a generous over-estimate.

Out of the 155.75 Million working Americans, 80.4 million make minimum wage. That's 51.6% (a majority) of workers making minimum wage. So yeah.

by RIMR 6y ago

Out of the 155.75 Million working Americans, 80.4 million make minimum wage. That's 51.6% (a majority) of workers making minimum wage. So yeah.

SpicyLemonZest 6y ago

That isn't true. In 2017, 80.4 million Americans were paid hourly, and out of those only 1.8 million made minimum wage or below. (https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm# https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm#) More generally, I'd encourage you to question the mental model that made this sound like a potentially true claim in the first case. An economy where most people are paid minimum wage would be incredibly different than the one we actually have.

closeparen 6y ago

Per BLS, 80.4 million workers make an hourly wage, with 1.8 million at or below at the federal minimum. [0] It is kind of fascinating that people have such wildly different ideas about what the objective facts are, and how that must flow downstream into their worldviews and politics. Between 51.6% and 2.3% is not a small difference! Those are very different worlds we could be living in! [0] https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm#:~:text=The%20percentage%20of%20hourly%20paid,collected%20on%20a%20regular%20basis https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm#....

A4ET8a8uTh0 6y ago
It is fascinating and horrifying at the same time. On the one hand, I am hoping the person was simply quoting something they heard in a rant online. On the other hand, I am hoping it is just a case of misreading available BLS data. Neither is exactly ideal and both paint rather sad picture of how we interpret reality.

rsj_hn 6y ago

You are off by a factor of fifty. That's like confidently announcing that US median household income is 3.4 million, or declaring that the US has a population of 16 Billion people. How do you react when people hold such crazy views? Here is a recent BLS study called "Characteristics of minimum wage workers" https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2019/home.htm https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2019/home.htm "In 2019, 82.3 million workers age 16 and older in the United States were paid at hourly rates, representing 58.1 percent of all wage and salary workers. Among those paid by the hour, 392,000 workers earned exactly the prevailing federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. About 1.2 million had wages below the federal minimum. Together, these 1.6 million workers with wages at or below the federal minimum made up 1.9 percent of all hourly paid workers."

ultrasaurus 6y ago
Just eyeballing it looks like only 25% of the US population lives in states where the federal minimum wage is also the prevailing minimum wage: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/state https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/state So I'd guess closer to 10% of people make the minimum wage in their jurisdiction (1.9% x 4 + I assume more people make min wage when it's higher) Very interesting though that 3x as many people make below the min wage as actually earn the "minimum" wage.
- rsj_hn 6y ago
  Those below the minimum wage are exempt workers such as waiters because they earn tips, and I guarantee you that their real income (on average) is much higher than minimum wage, but data is hard to come by as much of that income is unreported. Thus the 2% figure is a generous over-estimate.