What percentage of American workers make less than $15 an hour?
Almost half of U.S. workers (42.4 percent) make less than $15 per hour. Workers within certain demographic groups are more likely to be working in this low-wage category than are workers in other groups.
What percentage of America works for minimum wage?
The percentage of hourly paid workers earning the prevailing federal minimum wage or less declined from 2.7 percent in 2016 to 2.3 percent in 2017. This remains well below the percentage of 13.4 recorded in 1979, when data were first collected on a regular basis. (See table 10.)
Why should we raise the minimum wage?
Raising the minimum wage pays social dividends that stretch beyond any debate about the discrepancies between workers’ wages and CEO’s wages. First, workers who are affected by a minimum wage increase see immediate and significant health benefits for themselves and for society.
Should the minimum wage be raised to $15 by 2025?
Sunset unacceptable subminimum wages for workers with disabilities employed in sheltered workshops and for workers under age 20. The benefits of gradually phasing in a $15 minimum wage by 2025 would be far-reaching, lifting pay for tens of millions of workers and helping reverse decades of growing pay inequality.
How would a maximum wage work?
A maximum wage could work in several different ways. Franklin Roosevelt proposed a maximum wage as a fixed amount. In 1942, as President of the United States, FDR proposed a 100 percent tax on all individual income over $25,000, about $365,000 in today’s dollars.
What would a $15 minimum wage mean for the economy?
A $15 minimum wage by 2024 would generate $120 billion in higher wages for workers and would also benefit their communities. Because lower-paid workers spend much of their extra earnings, this injection of wages will help stimulate the economy and spur greater business activity and job growth.