Characteristics of minimum wage workers, 2015

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

In 2015, 78.2 million workers age 16 and older in the United States were paid at hourly rates, representing 58.5 percent of all wage and salary workers. Among those paid by the hour, 870,000 workers earned exactly the prevailing federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. About 1.7 million had wages below the federal minimum. Together, these 2.6 million workers with wages at or below the federal minimum made up 3.3 percent of all hourly paid workers.

The percentage of hourly paid workers earning the prevailing federal minimum wage or less declined from 3.9 percent in 2014 to 3.3 percent in 2015. This remains well below the percentage of 13.4 recorded in 1979, when data for hourly-paid were first collected on a regular basis.

This report presents highlights and statistical tables describing workers who earned at or below the federal minimum wage in 2015. The data are obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a national monthly survey of approximately 60,000 households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Information on earnings is collected from one-fourth of the CPS sample each month.

The CPS does not include questions on whether workers are covered by the minimum wage provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) or by individual state or local minimum wage laws. The estimates of workers paid at or below the federal minimum wage are based solely on the hourly wage they report, which does not include overtime pay, tips, or commissions.

Preserving the American Dream in the face of change

In 2015, too many American families struggle with stagnant wages, precarious work, insecure retirement, crushing college debt, and more. We look at the yawning income gap and we know it is wrong and it is unsustainable. Our shared values tell us so—no matter where we fall on the political spectrum. But this next truth is less clear to many: the economy is not like the weather; it doesn’t just happen to us and it is not out of our control. Elected leaders make deliberate decisions about what this economy will be like. Elected leaders determine who wins and who loses.

The most important way we can raise wages is restoring workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain collectively.

Politics can play a valuable role in American life as a tool for justice and the common good. But so much money is flooding into the political system from the very rich that our democracy is in danger. We risk becoming a nation whose leaders areselected rather than elected. Meanwhile, the politics of division has spurred suspicion and anger among America’s working people. As a result, too often we engage in culture wars instead of uniting to put all our strength into harnessing change to benefit us all.

In other words, we face a classic American dilemma. As Benjamin Franklin put it, we must all hang together or we will surely hang separately. That’s the crossroads.

More from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Percent changes in average hourly earnings by state, May 2014 to May 2015

From May 2014 to May 2015, average hourly earnings increased in 45 states and decreased in five states and the District of Columbia. Vermont had the highest percent increase in hourly earnings (5.8 percent). Wyoming had the largest percent decrease (−1.4 percent).

What You Need to Know About U and T Visas

Labor Secretary Perez announced that the Labor Department is taking important steps to fulfill its commitment to protect vulnerable workers. Specifically, the Wage and Hour Division will begin certifying applications for trafficking victims seeking T visas. In addition, the division will now certify U visa requests when it detects three new qualifying criminal activities in the course of its workplace investigations: extortion, forced labor, and fraud in foreign labor contracting.

The Wage and Hour Division enforces several critical federal workplace laws — including the federal minimum wage and overtime laws. Because many wage and hour investigations take place in industries that employ vulnerable workers, the Wage and Hour Division is often the first federal agency to make contact with these workers and detect exploitation in the workplace.

Wall Street Worried About Working Class

America’s working class has an unlikely advocate: Wall Street.

Long known for caring more about its own profits and bonuses than the minimum wage worker, even members of Wall Street are raising concerns about the snail’s pace at which wages are rising, according to The Wall Street Journal’s E.S. Browning.

"Without a real acceleration in wages it is hard to get a meaningful pickup in consumer spending," senior Bank of America Merrill Lynch U.S. economist Michelle Meyer told the Journal.

Despite a U.S. economy that created more than 200,000 jobs a month for four consecutive months — a first since the late 1990s — the number of jobs is not even close to squaring with population growth, according to Browning. Seven million additional jobs are needed to account for the rise in working-age people since 2008, according to the Journal.

More from Newsmax

Cities Where Wages Haven't Kept Pace with Rising Housing Costs

Many Americans – particularly renters – saw housing costs steadily climb in recent years. At the same time, wages remained relatively flat for most segments of the workforce, meaning families spend a greater share of their incomes on housing instead of food, health and other necessities.

Nationally, for slightly more than half of rental households, monthly gross rent costs last year accounted for 30 percent or more of household income -- the general rule-of-thumb maximum that families should not exceed. For homeowners with a mortgage, about a third of households reported housing-related costs surpassing the 30-percent standard, according to Census estimates.

More from Governing.

The Global Gender Gap Report 2013

From the World Economic Forum [PDF]

The press release:

The Global Gender Gap Report 2013 finds 86 out of 133 countries improved their global gender gap between 2012 and 2013, with the area of political participation seeing the greatest progress.

Iceland has the narrowest gender gap in the world, followed by Finland, Norway and Sweden.

Data indicates overall slight gains in gender parity mask the emergence of twin-track paths towards economic equality in many countries and regions....

The eighth annual edition of the Report ranks 136 countries on their ability to close the gender gap in four key areas: economic participation and opportunity, political empowerment, health and survival, educational attainment, political participation and economic equality. Of the 133 countries that were measured in both 2012 and 2013, 86 actually improved their gender gap during this time. Overall, the Report finds Iceland the most advanced country in the world in terms of gender equality for the fifth year running. It, along with Finland (2nd), Norway (3rd) and Sweden (4th), has now closed over 80% of its gender gap. These countries are joined in the top 10 by the Philippines, which enters the top five for the first time, Ireland (6th), New Zealand (7th), Denmark (8th), Switzerland (9th) and Nicaragua (10th).

Wage data

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics main page has Wage Data by Metropolitan Area; choose your state/metro area and go from there.

Paycheck Fairness Helps Families, Not Just Women

The gender wage gap varies across states. While on a national basis, women’s earnings are 18 percent less than men’s earnings, women in some states experience much larger differences in pay. ... For example, in Louisiana and Wyoming, women earn only 69.4 cents and 70.4 cents, respectively, for every dollar earned by men. By contrast, in California, women earn 91.5 cents for every dollar earned by men. Although some portion of the gender pay gap can be explained by differences in education, occupation or job tenure between men and women, a portion of the pay gap remains unexplained and could be caused by gender-based discrimination.

GDP, Income and Wages

From the Bureau of Economic Analysis
Per Capita Real GDP by Metropolitan Area
Per Capita Real GDP by State

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics
Consumer Expenditures and Income [PDF]
Occupational Employment and Wages, 2010 [PDF]

Women’s Earnings in 2010

From Bureau of Labor Statistics [PDF]

In 2010, women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median weekly earnings of $669. Women earned 81 percent of the median weekly earnings of their male counterparts ($824). In 1979, the first year for which comparable
earnings data are available, women earned 62 percent of what men earned. The women's-to-men's earnings ratio has been in the 80 to 81 percent range since 2004; prior to this time, the ratio had been gradually trending upward.

AVERAGE HOURS AND EARNINGS IN NEW YORK – MAY 2011

Average weekly earnings for all employees on private sector payrolls in New York State increased 2.1 percent to $909.04 over the year ending in May 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The average work week lengthened by 0.2 hour (0.6 percent) to 34.2 hours, while average hourly earnings rose 1.5 percent to $26.58. Regional Commissioner Michael L. Dolfman pointed out that the percentage rise in New York average
weekly wages was not as large as the gain in the United States.

Other findings in today's release:
• New York’s average weekly earnings of $909.04 ranked sixth highest in the Nation.
• New York was 1 of 38 states and the District of Columbia with an over-the-year increase in average weekly earnings.
• New York was 1 of 32 states and the District of Columbia to register lengthier weeks in May 2011 compared to one year earlier.
• The information industry recorded the highest average weekly earnings for all employees ($1,380.83), followed by financial activities ($1,307.21), professional and business services ($1,226.88), and construction ($1,190.69).
• Seven of New York’s supersectors had over-the-year increases in average weekly wages.
• Eight of 12 metropolitan areas in New York registered gains in average weekly earnings, led by Ithaca, which registered a 13.5 percent increase.
• Average hours rose in 6 of the 12 areas, with Elmira recording the largest increase, up 1.5 hour. The workweek was unchanged in New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island.
• The average workweek for all private sector employees in New York was 34.2 hours; New York City posted a 34.9-hour average.

Please read the complete release in text (NYLS 7945) or in PDF.

National Compensation Survey and Productivity Trends

National Compensation Survey: Occupational Earnings in the United States, 2010

The National Compensation Survey (NCS) provides comprehensive measures of occupational earnings, compensation cost trends, the incidence of benefits, and detailed benefit provisions. This bulletin presents estimates of occupational pay for the Nation. These national estimates originate from the NCS locality survey data and are weighted to represent the Nation as a whole. The estimates include pay for workers in major sectors within the U.S. economy in 2010–the civilian, private, and State and local government sectors–and by various occupational and establishment characteristics. The civilian sector, by NCS definition, excludes Federal Government, agricultural, and household workers.

National Compensation Survey: Occupational Wages by Census Division, 2010

Preliminary Multifactor Productivity Trends – 2010 [PDF]

The Shocking Disparities of Labor Cost

Have you ever wondered how long does it take overseas to make the equivalent of US minimum wage?

See for yourself:Click the image to enlarge

Source: FixR

Occupational Employment and Wages Summary

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
In 2008, the U.S. median wage was $15.57 per hour or $32,390 per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Department of Labor. These data are from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program, which provides employment and wage estimates for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and 801 detailed occupations.

Living Wage Calculator

The Department of Geography at Penn State has put together this website, described thusly: "In many American communities, families working in low-wage jobs make insufficient income to live locally given the local cost of living. Recently, in a number of high-cost communities, community organizers and citizens have successfully argued that the prevailing wage offered by the public sector and key businesses should reflect a wage rate required to meet minimum standards of living. Therefore we have developed a living wage calculator to estimate the cost of living in your community or region. The Calculator lists typical expenses, the living wage and typical wages in the location you have selected."

Occupational wage data

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has occupational wage data for sector, 3-, 4- and 5-digit NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) industries.

Data is for the nation, region, state, and MSA levels.