A bit about the minimum wage, let's start with the facts...
Business and Professional Women/USA has been a strong advocate in the legislative battle to increase the federal minimum wage. At the current level, established in 1996, workingwomen bringing home a minimum wage salary do not have the resources to provide for their families, and 60.9% of workers earning between $5.15 and $7.00 per hour are women.
MINIMUM WAGE AND WORKING FAMILIES
• In 2002, approximately 2.6 million full-time, year-round workers lived in poverty.
• A full-time worker on minimum wage earns approximately $10,712 a year, $1,778 below the 2004 poverty line for a family of two, $4,958 below the poverty line for a family of three, and $8,138 below the poverty line for a family of four.
• Nearly 75% of all minimum wage earners are adults (20 years and older).
• 40% of minimum wage earners are the sole breadwinners in their families.
• Nearly 50% of minimum wage earners work full time.
• The real value of today’s minimum wage is 44% below its peak in 1968 due to inflation.
• Raising the minimum wage to $7.00 would put more than $3,800 a year in the pockets of full-time, year-round workers, increasing their income by 36%. It would also raise the wages of 7.4 million workers, or 5.9% of the workforce.
DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH
• The United States now has the most uneven distribution of income and wealth of any industrialized nation.
• In the past 20 years, 80 percent of the income increase in the United States has gone to the top 20 percent – most of it to the top one percent.
• The average CEO in the United States makes $5,300 an hour – more than 1000 times the hourly minimum wage.
• In 1998, the average-paid CEO earned in two hours the amount a minimum wage worker earns in an entire year.
• If the average minimum wage had grown as much as the average CEO salary over the past five years, the minimum wage would now be $23 per hour.
MINIMUM WAGE AND THE ECONOMY
• The low-wage workers most affected by the minimum wage increase are consumers who are more likely than higher-wage workers to spend their additional earnings on necessary goods and services.
• Adjusted for inflation, the stock market has gone up by over 150 percent since 1968 – while the purchasing power of the minimum wage has declined by 30 percent.
• Full-time workers increased productivity by 20 percent since 1978, but are getting 8.6 percent less compensation.
bpwusa.org
MINIMUM WAGE AND WORKING FAMILIES
• In 2002, approximately 2.6 million full-time, year-round workers lived in poverty.
• A full-time worker on minimum wage earns approximately $10,712 a year, $1,778 below the 2004 poverty line for a family of two, $4,958 below the poverty line for a family of three, and $8,138 below the poverty line for a family of four.
• Nearly 75% of all minimum wage earners are adults (20 years and older).
• 40% of minimum wage earners are the sole breadwinners in their families.
• Nearly 50% of minimum wage earners work full time.
• The real value of today’s minimum wage is 44% below its peak in 1968 due to inflation.
• Raising the minimum wage to $7.00 would put more than $3,800 a year in the pockets of full-time, year-round workers, increasing their income by 36%. It would also raise the wages of 7.4 million workers, or 5.9% of the workforce.
DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH
• The United States now has the most uneven distribution of income and wealth of any industrialized nation.
• In the past 20 years, 80 percent of the income increase in the United States has gone to the top 20 percent – most of it to the top one percent.
• The average CEO in the United States makes $5,300 an hour – more than 1000 times the hourly minimum wage.
• In 1998, the average-paid CEO earned in two hours the amount a minimum wage worker earns in an entire year.
• If the average minimum wage had grown as much as the average CEO salary over the past five years, the minimum wage would now be $23 per hour.
MINIMUM WAGE AND THE ECONOMY
• The low-wage workers most affected by the minimum wage increase are consumers who are more likely than higher-wage workers to spend their additional earnings on necessary goods and services.
• Adjusted for inflation, the stock market has gone up by over 150 percent since 1968 – while the purchasing power of the minimum wage has declined by 30 percent.
• Full-time workers increased productivity by 20 percent since 1978, but are getting 8.6 percent less compensation.
bpwusa.org
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