Immigration Reform Act

[Highwayman]

Here’s some red meat to chew on….


U.S. Department of Labor
Bureau of Labor Statistics

Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2004

According to Current Population Survey estimates for 2004, some 73.9 million American workers were paid at hourly rates, representing 59.8 percent of all wage and salary workers.1 Of those paid by the hour, 520,000 were reported as earning exactly $5.15, the prevailing Federal minimum wage, and another 1.5 million were reported earning wages below the minimum.2 Together, these 2.0 million workers with wages at or below the minimum made up 2.7 percent of all hourly-paid workers. Tables 1 - 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 2004 data.

• Minimum wage workers tend to be young. About half of all hourly-paid workers earning $5.15 or less were under age 25, and about one-fourth were age 16-19. Among teenagers, about 9 percent earned $5.15 or less. About 2 percent of workers age 25 and over earned the minimum wage or less. Among those age 65 and over, the proportion was 4 percent. (See table 1 and table 7.)
  
  
• About 4 percent of women paid hourly rates reported wages at or below the prevailing Federal minimum, compared with about 2 percent of men. (See table 1.)
  
  
• Nearly 3 percent of white hourly-paid workers earned $5.15 or less, compared with about 2 percent for both blacks and Hispanics or Latinos. The figure for Asians was about 1 percent. Among whites and Hispanics or Latinos, women were about twice as likely as men to earn the Federal minimum wage or less. (See table 1.)
  
  
• Never-married workers, who tend to be young, were more likely to earn the minimum wage or less than persons who are married. (See table 8.)
  
  
• Among hourly-paid workers age 16 and over, about 2 percent of those who had a high school diploma but had not gone on to college earned the minimum or less, compared with about 1 percent for those who had obtained a college degree. (See table 6.)
  
  
• Part-time workers (persons who usually work less than 35 hours per week) were much more likely than their full-time counterparts to be paid $5.15 or less (about 7 percent versus 1 percent). (See table 1 and table 9.)
  
  
• By occupational group, the proportion of hourly-paid workers whose earnings were reported at or below $5.15 ranged from less than 1 percent for persons employed in management, professional, and related occupations, to about 9 percent for those in service occupations. About three in four workers earning $5.15 or less in 2004 were employed in service occupations, mostly in food service jobs. (See table 4.)
  
  
• Among industry groups, the proportion of workers with reported hourly wages at or below $5.15 was highest in leisure and hospitality (about 15 percent). About three-fifths of all workers paid at or below the Federal minimum wage were employed in this industry, primarily in food services and drinking places. For many of these workers, tips supplement the hourly wages received. (See table 5.)
  
  
• Among the four broad geographic regions, the West had the lowest proportion of hourly-paid workers with earnings at or below $5.15, at under 2 percent. This compared with about 3 percent for the other regions. In 2004, 24 states and the District of Columbia had a proportion of hourly-paid workers earning at or below the Federal minimum wage that exceeded the national average (2.7 percent); 22 states had a lower proportion. It should be noted that some states have minimum wage laws establishing minimum wage standards that exceed the Federal level of $5.15 per hour. (See table 2 and table 3.)
  
  
• The proportion of hourly-paid workers earning the prevailing Federal minimum wage or less has trended downward since 1979, when data first began to be collected on a regular basis. (See table 10.)

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics' data on minimum wage earners are derived from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a nationwide sample survey of households that includes questions enabling the identification of hourly-paid workers and their hourly wage rate. Data in this summary are 2004 annual averages.

1 Data are for wage and salary workers, excluding the incorporated self-employed, and refer to earnings on a person's sole or principal job.

2 It should be noted that the presence of a sizable number of workers with reported wages below the minimum does not necessarily indicate violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, as there are exemptions to the minimum wage provisions of the law. Indeed, the relatively large number of workers with reported wages below the minimum in 2004 includes about 350,000 hourly-paid workers reported as earning exactly $5.00 per hour; to some extent, this may reflect rounding in the responses of survey participants. The estimates of the numbers of minimum and subminimum wage workers presented in the accompanying tables pertain to workers paid at hourly rates; salaried and other non-hourly workers are excluded. As such, the actual number of workers with earnings at or below the prevailing minimum is undoubtedly understated. Research has shown that a relatively smaller number and share of salaried workers and others not paid by the hour have earnings that, when translated into hourly rates, are at or below the minimum wage. However, BLS does not routinely estimate hourly earnings for non-hourly workers because of data concerns that arise in producing these estimates. For further information, see Steven Haugen and Earl Mellor, "Estimating the number of minimum wage workers," Monthly Labor Review, January 1990 (PDF 415K).

Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2004

Tables 1 - 10; Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2004

[Made in the USA]

I just don't see the benefit behind being forced to pay more for someone who has no ambition to do the best job they can. --Detector

I'm afraid I have to agree with Detector on this one. If a person wants to get ahead, and WORK for it, they can do it. Problem with most of today's generation is that they think they should start at the top, make lots of money, but do nothing for it!! ie---lazy---

[Torn]

It pays to be an illegal. They do what they want and expect the Citizens of America to accept it.

[TexKan]

Ya'll missin the point that 5.15 is not a livable wage. Employers can pick and choose who gets the wage -

[Army_of_One]

Originally Posted by TexKan

Ya'll missin the point that 5.15 is not a livable wage. Employers can pick and choose who gets the wage -

I think you are missing the point....

73.9 million American workers were paid at hourly rates, representing 59.8 percent of all wage and salary workers.1 Of those paid by the hour, 520,000 were reported as earning exactly $5.15, the prevailing Federal minimum wage.

And of those 520,000 most are under 25 and NOT a head of household. A lot are even teens. So a minimum wage increase REALLY doesn't get a lot of people out of poverty. You know what gets people out of poverty? How about education (which is pretty much free for those in poverty) and hard work. A MIN WAGE increase is a TAX windfall for the local/state/fed gov't...because employers payroll goes up and along with that the taxes they pay...the price of goods go up across the board...which brings in more taxes for the gov't. So Texkan...we all pay more for so that 19 year old can make a few more dollars an hour....it really doesn't bring very many people out of poverty...like someone said earlier...it's a vote buying program that pits the have's vs the have nots. Also...People don't DESERVE anything..but the right to be free to earn a wage in a somewhat safe environment. You don't DESERVE healthcare, you earn it or pay for it. You don't DESERVE an education...you earn it...you don't DESERVE a good job, you work you way up...you don't DESERVE a nice car and house...you work your ass off to get that.....In a somewhat capitalistic society you should EARN what you have...again the only thing you deserve is the chance to go to work and go to school and in a safe environment.

[K C Muffin]

Originally Posted by TexKan

Ya'll missin the point that 5.15 is not a livable wage. Employers can pick and choose who gets the wage -

from among who? They take whomever they can get for that wage. That's why the Sonic has problems I read about earlier. But as long as somebody tells the business owners how much they have to pay, they're only going to pay that much and nothing more. Rip off the minimum wage and just watch the wage level right itself. Just watch.

[TexKan]

Well baby the powers that be agree with me.................. and yes people do deserve to make a decent wage for hard work. Obviously the congress thinks so as well.

[Army_of_One]

Originally Posted by TexKan

Well baby the powers that be agree with me.................. and yes people do deserve to make a decent wage for hard work. Obviously the congress thinks so as well.

No baby...not all of the powers...check the vote on the minimum wage increase...it's mostly liberals pandering to the poor for a vote. If that represents you then so be it. The min wage increase does nothing for you but hurt you. Our congress DOESN"T think so because they couldn't get it passed until the Liberals stuck it on to the iraq war funds vote....

[Highwayman]

Originally Posted by K C Muffin

from among who? They take whomever they can get for that wage.....

Employers also have to be careful about picking and choosing or they can get in trouble for discrimination.

[K C Muffin]

Don't misunderstand me, Texie - I agree that hard work deserves good pay. But it shouldn't be legislated. There are enough people out of work to force good workers to the top. Then they can demand decent wages simply because they are good at their job. The minimum wage just serves to keep it low.