4 ms·
> The number of people making federal minimum wage is tiny, around 0.1% of all workers: This is largely meaningless. My first job in high school paid $6.51/hr.
by AlexandrB 2y ago
> The number of people making federal minimum wage is tiny, around 0.1% of all workers:
This is largely meaningless. My first job in high school paid $6.51/hr. The minimum wage at the time was $6.50/hr. I would not be part of the 0.1% earning minimum wage - but in practice I wouldn't be any better off than them either.
I suspect a lot of employers play this game so they can claim "pays above minimum wage" in their job posting (that's what my employer did).
- apsec112 2y agoIn 2014, 1.7% of workers were paid the minimum, and the 10th percentile hourly wage was $8.62, which you could reasonably say was barely more than the minimum. So there were a lot of people making minimum wage or fairly close to it: https://www.epi.org/publication/stagnant-wages-in-2014/ https://www.epi.org/publication/stagnant-wages-in-2014/ However, 10th percentile wages are now $14/hour, which is almost double the minimum: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ecec.pdf https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ecec.pdf and the number of people making exactly minimum wage has shrunk dramatically, from ~1.7% to ~0.1%. So it seems reasonable to say that the number of people making close to minimum wage is now quite small.
- jgwil2 2y agoWould it be fair to say our minimum wage is now so low as to be basically non-existent, in that its effect on the jobs market is negligible? Or is there still some effect of having it there despite the fact that so few jobs actually hit that floor?