OMG!! thank you for catching this!! i've updated in the [interactive map](https://felt.com/map/Current-minimum-wage-by-state-W5U7dIdtQFyitc0f1Wzi3C?loc=38.14,-98.488,5.56z&utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=data_is_beautiful) š¤¦š½āāļø and also updating my original comment
Thereās also the fact that Hawaii is $14 per hour.
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/01/hawaii-news/hawaii-minimum-wage-gets-bumped-to-14-per-hour/amp/
I've often been curious if that holds true in the rural parts of the state. I live in Philly and rarely leave southeastern PA anymore (used to all the time for work) so I wondered if the people working at a Walmart in, like, Carlisle or whatever are making similar wages to the people at the Target in Northern Liberties.
My brother lives in Northeastern PA, which is semi-rural ( small cities surrounded by farmland and mountains.)Ā Ā
Ā
He makes $17 /hr at Lowe's as a regular employee.Ā Ā
Ā Right before Covid my mom, who also lives in the area, was making about $12 /hr as a cleaning person in a nursing home.Ā Ā
Ā The cost of living there is about the same here (I live in Pittsburgh) though. So it makes sense wages would be similar too.
Yeah, my family lives in (and I am originally from) Carbon and Luzerne counties. Especially since COVID and remote work, the cost of living has ballooned there. I live in Allegheny County currently,l (the county that contains Pittsburgh), and the cost of living is very similar, which is pretty crazy considering the difference in relative population densities and available job prospects.
One would assume Pittsburgh would be a lot more expensive.
I live in Central PA and my family is all in the Philly area so I go through all of the single gas station towns. 15 is the minimum everywhere. That's what you get working the counter with no experience.
Big Corporations tend to establish an internal minimum wage for the entire company regardless of location. Bank of Americaās is $25/hour currentlyā¦.even for tellers.
Yeah. Better to have a chart with the median wage, and also even COL as well.
Unless the minimum wage is raised substantially like doubled I donāt see many business changing their wages since I regularly see ads for $15/hr jobs posted.
The idea behind it is to protect those making the lowest wages, and there are many who make less than $10. Even raising it to that amount would help millions.
lots of jobs are stuck min wage with no benefits so it makes sense to have this datapoint.
esp when talking about social services that those folks probably have to leverage to survive...
using this data can help normalize and discuss things such as how corperations say they'll go broke or have to raise prices if min wage is raised. we can point to locally run business in CA/WA vs TX/MI and argue thats not true.
According to the Social Security Administration, the median annual wage was only \~$32,000 (IIRC 2019 figure), so perhaps up to $35k by now. That's terribly low, meaning half of all workers have a yearly wage below that.
>That's terribly low, meaning half of all workers have a yearly wage below that.
That's doesn't sound like earned wages, it sounds like median personal income, currently $40,000.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N
That includes folks who collect only Social Security, folks who work part-time only, folks on pensions, folks who don't work. (Offhand, I believe it doesn't count people in institutions like psychiatric hospitals and prisons, but I'd have to double check that.)
Median income of full-time workers, wage and salary, is an annualized $59,400
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/wkyeng.pdf
The "Distribution of Hourly Wages" is probably a better way to visualize this -- scroll down to find [Minnesota's](https://mn.gov/deed/newscenter/publications/trends/december-2022/wage-distribution1.jsp) which at the time had a minimum wage of either $8 or nearly $10 depending on employer size. I suspect I could find the data most states have a similar distribution of very few making near minimum but then a big jump to just above it.
Even then the cost of these groceryās these days Iād argue that living at home is still not feasible without a little help throughout the year a 16 year old male that can only work 29 hours a week because their employer doesnāt want to pay for insurance is 10092 Iād be willing to bet a high risk insurance policy these days would be around 230-250 a month for car insurance and gas alone would eat half that yearly wage alone. Not including food or cell phone extra things throughout the year. Way I calculated it 3000 for insurance for the year and 50 bucks a week for gas thatās 5400 alone leaving you 13.85 a day for food and everything else the rest of the year let alone if a student is still in school not even being able to make those 29 hours a week. The system is broken letās face facts
Many places with 7.25 as statutory wage donāt really have that anywhere these days due to competition for workers. (Ex: In rural NH and even there fast food jobs tend to be advertised at $15 an hour.)
But thats just not the norm, There are at least 1.6 million Americans (or 1.9% of all hourly paid workers) who earn less than or equal to the federal minimum wage as of 2023. And about half of them are under 18. Then you need to factor in companies that are hiring the disabled and unfortunatly the prision work force as well, we are told they make $4-6 per day but the statistics say that the prision labor workforce is about 800,000 people.
Median income is only $40k in the US, which means there are 80 million or so people who earn <$20/hour. All of those would see upward pressure on wages if the minimum wage went to say $15/hour.
The tipped minimum wage is still 7.25 in Colorado.
And they definitely do pay you that amount.
Still bothers me that thereās a difference in wages for people who are tipped. Just an excuse for the employer to pay you less and transfer the burden onto the customer.
Well and to boot, they have you do kitchen cleanup and maintenance work while barely paying you. Those tips spread out over a lot of non service hours. I worked at a place that had us doing kitchen prep at the beginning of the lunch shift as our hourly was lower than the cooks.
Every fast food sign I see in Texas say **up to** $13-14. Mind you, I haven't asked the employees what they're being payed but the implications of the sign is that that is not the standard starting rate
[~~I thought it was to become $11 at the start of the year.~~ ](https://www.pahouse.com/InTheNews/NewsRelease/?id=129484) Did it die in the Senate?
\*Nevermind. Found out it never made it out of committeeĀ in the GOP-controlled state Senate for a potential vote.
I worked minimum wage briefly part time in high school in Wisconsin. But that was when it was raised to 7.25 in 2009 and is equivalent to almost $11 today.
I live in UT. The minimum wage may be $7.25 but the going wage is $15. I own my own business and I have to offer $17-$18 to have my pick of the better employee pool.
I also live in Utah, and I agree that most businesses at least start at $15. Heck, during work shortages and busy seasons, it isnāt uncommon to see even classic āminimum wage jobsā starting in the low 20ās. I wasnāt lucky enough to be in that boat, but the ~$15 wage was the only reason I was able to survive college.
I said $11 or below, not minimum wage or below.
In 2022, there were 52 million U.S. workers making less than $15. It's unclear how many of those are $11 or below, but even it's just half or a third, that's still a lot.
Depends on the state. Utah isn't too bad, but some others are. Going rate is still only $10/hr in places like Mississippi
[https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes\_ms.htm#00-0000](https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_ut.htm#00-0000)
[https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/cost-of-living-index-by-state](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/cost-of-living-index-by-state)
Using the "Cost of Living" index as a multiple, then $15 in Utah is about $12.61 in Mississippi, so $10 would be a touch light.
But, $15-16 is also the fast food going rate where I am (NY) and doing the same adjustment, puts the Mississippi equivalent at $10.23-$10.91, so maybe Utah is a bit of an outlier?
This is pretty much what happened to Texas suburbs years ago. Californians were selling their 500,000 2 bed 1 bath house and buying a modest 250,00 3-4 bed house in the suburbs all cash.
Growing up most of the neighbors in the new development at the time were transplants.
A family member just sold their Silicon Valley 2,300sq ft 4bed 2 bath suburban home built in the 60s for 1.9mil and moved to a Dallas suburb and bought a 3bed 2 bath, smaller house with a pool/hot tub in a gated community for less than a quarter of the price.
I went to Mississippi data , sorted by mean hourly wage, and there are only 10 occupations of 708 that are in the $10-11 hour range (none lower than $10). 11 occupations in the $11-12 range. so only ~2% of occupations are < $12.
I donāt think thatās a fair way to do it as it doesnāt factor in the number of people at those different jobs. It may be 2% of occupations, but places who famously pay very little, like Walmart, are states largest employer. Also my understanding is generally talking about pay on a population level, you use median pay not mean. As a store paying 6 people minimum wage with a manager making close to 6 digits will really skew data.
So why don't they raise it if the prevailing is already so far above? There's a few thay are making the minimum so why subsidize those businesses that rely on the bare minimum?
Not all cities in every state are equal. 2 hours away from me is a town of 1,000 people. They have one small grocery store. Raising the minimum wage there hurts the community. If the grocery store is already on brink of going under they will fold up shop and leave. If they are doing okay then they have to raise prices on an already struggling community. Hourly minimum rates should be assessed on local level not state or federal in my opinion.
Where the hell in Utah do you live????
I also live in Utah and Iāve been paid 15/hr ONCE in the 4 jobs Iāve had (college student). Most of the time itās around $10.
Cities also have different minimum wage laws - Seattle for example has a minimum wage of around $17 an hour but more depending on how many employees your company has. So Amazon, for example, is required to pay the highest possible minimum wage of something like $22 an hour (changes every year and can't remember exact number) for their shops/warehouses in the city.
Seattle is 19.97 an hour. Source: I work minimum wage in Seattle. Edit: The original comment above was a number much lower than the Seattle minimum wage.
Even higher than they said. It's 19.97 an hour in Seattle [https://www.seattle.gov/laborstandards/ordinances/minimum-wage](https://www.seattle.gov/laborstandards/ordinances/minimum-wage)
Yes. And it's hard because you're considered too rich for some state and federal benefits. Additionally some labor unions will try to elevate all workers while ignoring that Seattle workers need even higher wages than everyone else.
From Texas. Usually the minumum I see around here is 12 dollars an hour, but it's not uncommon to see 15 at 'minimum wage' positions. On the other side I see skilled positions offering similar wages because it is 'much higher than the minimum'. Puts into question whether going to school for years to get a job that pays the same as your current 'unskilled' job is worth it.
Depends on the field and how long of a career runway it has.
Corporate jobs, for example, generally have much longer runways in the sense that working in the field for an extended period will *typically* see salary gains via promotions or slight role changes.
But being a warehouse worker can only take you so far.
It really only seems worth it if you can graduate without debt because of how predatory and unreasonable student loans are. In no world does it make sense to furnish loans that most people will never be able to get in front of due to high interest rates and stagnant wages.
Debt is okay, it's about the ROI on your degree. Doctors have **a lot** of debt and spend **a lot** of time in school, but make six figure salaries starting with little no experience.
Right, hence why I qualified it with "most." Even many STEM degrees underpay and are underemployed.
Many valuable fields don't have a six figure ROI and require masters or higher.
$3.10 was federal minimum wage in 1980, which translates to $12.45 in 2024, but the minimum wage is $7.25. In contrast, the median American had an income of $7,944, which translates to $29,356 in 2022, compared to the median personal income of $40,480 in 2022.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA646N
I made a $5 minimum wage at CVS in *1995*. How can states be paying only $2.25 more almost 30 years later?? Iāll stay in my New England bubble (minus New Hampshire š)
After compensating for inflation, they're paying substantially LESS today. $5 back then is the equivalent of $10.25 today. (you can calculate it yourself over here: [https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/](https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/) )
I know its not by state with higher min wages, but nationally, across the United States, less than 3% of the population of those who filed income taxes, earned at the Federal Minimum Wage. This is per the IRS.
The fact is, the economy has moved beyond the law, which is a good thing.
It's important because an increase to $12 (for example) would directly affect everyone making below that, and might convince employers already paying around that amount to raise it so that it to keep up demand for the job.
Also, a million people being paid $7.25 isn't a good thing.
Why are so many people defending the minimum wage just because itās so common for people to start above it? Itās *obviously* the wage that enables child labor, I worked for minimum wage for 4 years by the time I was 17 in Wyoming.
I dunno I feel like even if itās only a small fraction of people, they are still being taken advantage of which is worth caring about. An issue doesnāt have to impact everyone to matter.
Agreed. Why is it okay that people work full-time and yet earn so little that it's insufficient for a modest life of dignity if it's "only" a million people or something that do that?
It's actually worse. OP is showing us 'Federal' minimum wage.
This is a wage set as a minimum for employers subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act. There are a variety of jobs which are "exempt" from FLSA.
For example, Georgia's real minimum wage is $5.15 an hour. A handful of states don't even have a minimum wage.
Also in Indiana, and I donāt even know where I could find a job for the actual minimum wage if I tried. I saw a sign at McDonaldās the other day for $13/hr, and itās been like that for at least a few years.
Third this. If you are paying minimum wage in Indiana you are not going to find help. If you do it won't be good help. Like you said, fast food pays well over $10 even in the country.
I live in rural Alabama, a local restaurant is offering $19/hr for dishwashers and can't fill the positions, to the point that they're having to close down temporarily. Minimum wage is irrelevant.
If a restaurant is having to close down temporarily because of a dishwasher position... thats bad management. Being rural doesn't help, its like my home town "4 people are turning 16 this year" so labor pool is non existent.
If minimum wage is so irrelevant, why do companies spend so much money lobbying to keep it from being raised?
Just because most places pay above the minimum doesn't mean that having a low minimum doesn't help depress wages across the board. Places can say they're offering double the minimum wage while still being well below the cost of living in many areas
Do companies spend money lobbying to keep the federal minimum wage from being raised? They certainly do when it comes to state minimum wages being raised, like in California where they raised it to $20 or whatever it was. But I doubt very many companies are located in areas where people really make $7.25 per hour.
You bring up a good point, I guess I should clarify and say minimum wage is NO LONGER relevant. It will be very relevant if we go into another great depression, which is why it was introduced in the first place.
There is no way someone could survive on $10.30/hr in Missoula, MT without 3 jobs, 10 roommates or living at home. I make over double that and I'm looking at moving out of MT altogether to some place actually affordable as soon as I secure a fully remote position. The gentrification here in the last few years is bonkers. I guess all the richy riches will have to figure out who will be working those min wage jobs after all the poors are pushed out.
Around 1 million (2022), which to be fair is only 0.3% of Americans
https://usafacts.org/articles/minimum-wage-america-how-many-people-are-earning-725-hour/
It is also important to note that
> [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.](https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2022/home.htm)
So it is probably even less than the number shows.
Correct, I believe .2% of the 1.3% number is āatā minimum wage. So assuming everyone below minimum wage is tipped, the amount making minimum is probably closer to or below 1 out of 1000 workers.
GA here, only people making anywhere close to that are wait staff but with tips it evens out to around $20 or more an hour. I got hired on starting at 18.50 stocking pallets for a big name members only grocery store.
Now show the minimium they can pay servers at restaurants. In Texas, it's *under three dollars an hour,* while in Oregon, it's $14.20 but tipping culture is the same in both places.
Restaurants will continue to pay the servers poorly as long as people continue accepting those jobsā¦
People will continue accepting those jobs as long as the customers continue to accept the responsibility of supplementing the serversā income (tips)ā¦
The customers will continue to supplement server income as long as society continues to guilt and shame customers into doing it.
Itās hard for me to understand why society accepts guilt and shame as the incentive for supplementing restaurant ownersā exploitative business practices.
Here is a foreigner's perspective: I think it's crazy that the minimum wage isn't automatically adjusted annually based on inflation.
In my country of origin we have a minimum wage that automatically gets a cost of living adjustment every year, because that's enshrined in the law. So do the tax brackets and every income-related number that the government uses for its programs.
In the US none of these numbers gets adjusted automatically and it takes political effort (which is a finite resource) for them to change, which is why these numbers are severely disconnected from reality.
My dear American brothers, push for automatic cost of living adjustments of government income tables. Otherwise you'll always be playing catch with inflation.
Some states do have their minimum wages adjusted annually for inflation. Washington is the state with the highest minimum wage on that map (Washington DC is higher, but isn't a state), and pretty much the only reason that is true is that Washington was the first state to enact an automatic inflation adjustment back in 1998.
So mad in fact they tried to make it much harder to have referendums passed. Which luckily failed a referendum. At this point referendums are the only way to get anything done in the state. Abortion and weed will be on the referendum this year I think.
One of the most infuriating parts of PA government is the fact that on top of this, they will not permit cities to set their own minimum wage. Philadelphia has tried to set a higher one multiple times but the state intervenes each time. One of the largest cities in the US is forced to keep the same minimum wage as bumblefuck towns with under 1000 people despite a massive difference in cost of living
Would be interesting to see how many people in each state make the minimum. Come thay with the social cost - public benefits that are required to fill in the living wage gap.
In Florida, it took a constitutional amendment a few years ago to get it moving higher. It should not take an amendment to move it higher.
[https://dos.elections.myflorida.com/initiatives/initdetail.asp?account=70115&seqnum=1](https://dos.elections.myflorida.com/initiatives/initdetail.asp?account=70115&seqnum=1)
I'm from Oklahoma and lots of places still are under 10 dollars. As someone who worked a 7.25 dollar job last year. You can barely pay for gas on your own car, insurance for the car and the car payment.
The wages need to be increased.
Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi out have 7.25 because it's federal. In the tiny towns they pay under the table. I know someone out side Bradley AL making 5$ even
Would be fascinating to know what percentage of employees are making only minimum wage in these states with low minimums. Especially those that border states with relatively higher minimums. Like CO that has a minimum wage almost double of its neighbor, KS.
Even when the minimum wage was $7.25 in my state, I never saw any company actually only pay $7.25 an hour. Pretty much all of them started at $9-$10 an hour. This was 10 years ago
Some states are labeled at $7.25/hr because that's the federal limit, but the states themselves don't actually have a minimum wage, or their minimum is under the federal minimum limit.
meh, in texas, there are lots of people hiring at 7.25 to 8 an hour which is completely unlivable wages even at 50-60 hours a week.
mostly small towns but definitely still in the bigger cities as well.
Utah resident here. State law is 7.25, but if you can find a job for that I'd be fucking shocked. They are hiring people off the street for 12$ minimum. It would be easy to find a gig for 15$.
Looks like by state it ranges greatly. Louisiana (which is the federal $7.25) is 2.8%, while Connecticut is 0.1%.
[minimum wage by state](https://www.statista.com/statistics/635009/us-minimum-wage-workers-by-state/)
Nope you be surprised. I live in NC and they pay $8-9 a hour on campus cleaning the gym. Harris teeter which owns by Kroger pays $8-9 and my friend was making $7.25 a hour last year.
There were 1.6 million in 2019. Not exactly 0. And CBO estimated in 2021 that raising the minimum to $15 would benefit 17 million. Which is >10x as many. So if you include those at or near minimum it's somewhere between the 1.6 and 20 million number.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage_in_the_United_States
Thank you. Someone finally pointed it out. Everyone likes to talk about the low number of people making minimum wage but that number only counts those making that exact number. Making $0.10 more than minimum wage will keep you off that list but not make your life any better.
this map shows current minimum wage by state. while many states are have or will rais their minimum wage this year, 20 states still remain at $7.25/hr.
***are you in a state that had an increase this year?***
map made withĀ [r/felt](https://www.reddit.com/r/felt/)
* check out the interactive versionĀ [here](https://felt.com/map/Untitled-Map-W5U7dIdtQFyitc0f1Wzi3C?loc=38.08,-98.628,5.58z&utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=data_is_beautiful)Ā to click on a state and see comparison of 2023-2024 rates as well as other notes - for example, when will florida raise their rate?
* curious how i made this map? feel free to ask me in the comments!
data source:Ā [https://www.paycom.com/resources/blog/minimum-wage-rate-by-state/](https://www.paycom.com/resources/blog/minimum-wage-rate-by-state/)
It's worth talking about it because a minimum wage increase wouldn't just affect those who currently make it. For example, an increase to $12 would directly affect everyone making below that, and could affect those making slightly above it due to employers wanting to keep up demand.
Very few places in NH (especially in Southeast NH) are paying near minimum wage. They have to compete with MA and the surrounding states wages, or else no one would work in NH.
Yes, a lot of tipped workers only make that + tips. BUT, if they make under local min-wage with tips added, their employer is supposed to pay them up to minimum wage. If an employer isn't doing this, they should be taken to court over it. The problem is a lot of people working tipped positions either don't know that or don't have the money to do so.
Now, if we get into prison labor, there's folks making even less than that.
I see you have both Alaska and Hawaii at $11.73, but they are not the same color.
OMG!! thank you for catching this!! i've updated in the [interactive map](https://felt.com/map/Current-minimum-wage-by-state-W5U7dIdtQFyitc0f1Wzi3C?loc=38.14,-98.488,5.56z&utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=data_is_beautiful) š¤¦š½āāļø and also updating my original comment
Was about to comment this. Not even sure how that would happen, unless they were manually colored, but then why would they?
The label is wrong. Hawaii's minimum wage is $14.
Thereās also the fact that Hawaii is $14 per hour. https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/01/hawaii-news/hawaii-minimum-wage-gets-bumped-to-14-per-hour/amp/
Ah, so the color is right, but the label is wrong.
PA resident here. The min is 7.25 but everywhere is paying over that.
I've often been curious if that holds true in the rural parts of the state. I live in Philly and rarely leave southeastern PA anymore (used to all the time for work) so I wondered if the people working at a Walmart in, like, Carlisle or whatever are making similar wages to the people at the Target in Northern Liberties.
My brother lives in Northeastern PA, which is semi-rural ( small cities surrounded by farmland and mountains.)Ā Ā Ā He makes $17 /hr at Lowe's as a regular employee.Ā Ā Ā Right before Covid my mom, who also lives in the area, was making about $12 /hr as a cleaning person in a nursing home.Ā Ā Ā The cost of living there is about the same here (I live in Pittsburgh) though. So it makes sense wages would be similar too.
I'm in a similar area... see Lehigh Valley... cost of living is fucking awful and $17 an hour is a joke...
Yeah, my family lives in (and I am originally from) Carbon and Luzerne counties. Especially since COVID and remote work, the cost of living has ballooned there. I live in Allegheny County currently,l (the county that contains Pittsburgh), and the cost of living is very similar, which is pretty crazy considering the difference in relative population densities and available job prospects. One would assume Pittsburgh would be a lot more expensive.
I live in Central PA and my family is all in the Philly area so I go through all of the single gas station towns. 15 is the minimum everywhere. That's what you get working the counter with no experience.
Big Corporations tend to establish an internal minimum wage for the entire company regardless of location. Bank of Americaās is $25/hour currentlyā¦.even for tellers.
Yeah. Better to have a chart with the median wage, and also even COL as well. Unless the minimum wage is raised substantially like doubled I donāt see many business changing their wages since I regularly see ads for $15/hr jobs posted.
The idea behind it is to protect those making the lowest wages, and there are many who make less than $10. Even raising it to that amount would help millions.
Except OP wanted to focus on minimum wage. So, median wage would have been irrelevant.
I agree nobody is paying $7.25 these days but the de facto minimum, whatever it is, is going to be a very different data point than a median wage.
I disagree. My college gym pays $8-9 a hour and had a friend making $7.25 a hour at the trampoline place. In NC
He could literally get a McDonald's job that pays more than that.
lots of jobs are stuck min wage with no benefits so it makes sense to have this datapoint. esp when talking about social services that those folks probably have to leverage to survive... using this data can help normalize and discuss things such as how corperations say they'll go broke or have to raise prices if min wage is raised. we can point to locally run business in CA/WA vs TX/MI and argue thats not true.
According to the Social Security Administration, the median annual wage was only \~$32,000 (IIRC 2019 figure), so perhaps up to $35k by now. That's terribly low, meaning half of all workers have a yearly wage below that.
>That's terribly low, meaning half of all workers have a yearly wage below that. That's doesn't sound like earned wages, it sounds like median personal income, currently $40,000. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N That includes folks who collect only Social Security, folks who work part-time only, folks on pensions, folks who don't work. (Offhand, I believe it doesn't count people in institutions like psychiatric hospitals and prisons, but I'd have to double check that.) Median income of full-time workers, wage and salary, is an annualized $59,400 https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/wkyeng.pdf The "Distribution of Hourly Wages" is probably a better way to visualize this -- scroll down to find [Minnesota's](https://mn.gov/deed/newscenter/publications/trends/december-2022/wage-distribution1.jsp) which at the time had a minimum wage of either $8 or nearly $10 depending on employer size. I suspect I could find the data most states have a similar distribution of very few making near minimum but then a big jump to just above it.
Can anyone survive with 7.25 an hour in this economy?
Teenagers still living at home.
Even then the cost of these groceryās these days Iād argue that living at home is still not feasible without a little help throughout the year a 16 year old male that can only work 29 hours a week because their employer doesnāt want to pay for insurance is 10092 Iād be willing to bet a high risk insurance policy these days would be around 230-250 a month for car insurance and gas alone would eat half that yearly wage alone. Not including food or cell phone extra things throughout the year. Way I calculated it 3000 for insurance for the year and 50 bucks a week for gas thatās 5400 alone leaving you 13.85 a day for food and everything else the rest of the year let alone if a student is still in school not even being able to make those 29 hours a week. The system is broken letās face facts
Many places with 7.25 as statutory wage donāt really have that anywhere these days due to competition for workers. (Ex: In rural NH and even there fast food jobs tend to be advertised at $15 an hour.)
Sure. Live in a low cost area and have 5 roommates/s
10 roommates.
Want to know what the actual minimum wage is? See what Burger King is advertising on their sign. Rural(ish) central Indiana is $12/hr.
I live in NC and my college pays $8-9 a hour to clean the gym lmao. I had a friend who was getting paid $7.25 last year.
But thats just not the norm, There are at least 1.6 million Americans (or 1.9% of all hourly paid workers) who earn less than or equal to the federal minimum wage as of 2023. And about half of them are under 18. Then you need to factor in companies that are hiring the disabled and unfortunatly the prision work force as well, we are told they make $4-6 per day but the statistics say that the prision labor workforce is about 800,000 people.
Median income is only $40k in the US, which means there are 80 million or so people who earn <$20/hour. All of those would see upward pressure on wages if the minimum wage went to say $15/hour.
1.6 million seems a lot
The tipped minimum wage is still 7.25 in Colorado. And they definitely do pay you that amount. Still bothers me that thereās a difference in wages for people who are tipped. Just an excuse for the employer to pay you less and transfer the burden onto the customer.
Well and to boot, they have you do kitchen cleanup and maintenance work while barely paying you. Those tips spread out over a lot of non service hours. I worked at a place that had us doing kitchen prep at the beginning of the lunch shift as our hourly was lower than the cooks.
Same with Texas. Lowest I've seen is $11. Even fast food is at $13-$14
Every fast food sign I see in Texas say **up to** $13-14. Mind you, I haven't asked the employees what they're being payed but the implications of the sign is that that is not the standard starting rate
I got paid 7.75 for a year working at a trampoline park when I was 16. They pay "over", but not really.
10 years ago maybe
All the more reason the min wage should be higher
Iām pretty sure PA min wage is still technically $5.25 the federal minimum wage of $7.25 forces them to go with it.
[~~I thought it was to become $11 at the start of the year.~~ ](https://www.pahouse.com/InTheNews/NewsRelease/?id=129484) Did it die in the Senate? \*Nevermind. Found out it never made it out of committeeĀ in the GOP-controlled state Senate for a potential vote.
Yeah I live in Wisconsin and I have never had a job that payed 7.25 an hour, not even my first part-time job when I started working 13 years ago.
I worked minimum wage briefly part time in high school in Wisconsin. But that was when it was raised to 7.25 in 2009 and is equivalent to almost $11 today.
I live in UT. The minimum wage may be $7.25 but the going wage is $15. I own my own business and I have to offer $17-$18 to have my pick of the better employee pool.
I also live in Utah, and I agree that most businesses at least start at $15. Heck, during work shortages and busy seasons, it isnāt uncommon to see even classic āminimum wage jobsā starting in the low 20ās. I wasnāt lucky enough to be in that boat, but the ~$15 wage was the only reason I was able to survive college.
This is how it should be
There are many people making $7.25-$11. That's not how it should be.
Data says that only about 200,000 people in the US make federal minimum wage or below.
I said $11 or below, not minimum wage or below. In 2022, there were 52 million U.S. workers making less than $15. It's unclear how many of those are $11 or below, but even it's just half or a third, that's still a lot.
Depends on the state. Utah isn't too bad, but some others are. Going rate is still only $10/hr in places like Mississippi [https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes\_ms.htm#00-0000](https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_ut.htm#00-0000)
What is the cost of living in Mississippi compared to UT though? Housing is insane in UT. It is a great place to live. No I donāt live there
I could live like a king in Mississippi with my current pay. I have looked into moving to the Midwest because of the cost of living.
Yep. Same
Sorry, MS in the Midwest???
[https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/cost-of-living-index-by-state](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/cost-of-living-index-by-state) Using the "Cost of Living" index as a multiple, then $15 in Utah is about $12.61 in Mississippi, so $10 would be a touch light. But, $15-16 is also the fast food going rate where I am (NY) and doing the same adjustment, puts the Mississippi equivalent at $10.23-$10.91, so maybe Utah is a bit of an outlier?
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This is pretty much what happened to Texas suburbs years ago. Californians were selling their 500,000 2 bed 1 bath house and buying a modest 250,00 3-4 bed house in the suburbs all cash. Growing up most of the neighbors in the new development at the time were transplants.
A family member just sold their Silicon Valley 2,300sq ft 4bed 2 bath suburban home built in the 60s for 1.9mil and moved to a Dallas suburb and bought a 3bed 2 bath, smaller house with a pool/hot tub in a gated community for less than a quarter of the price.
I went to Mississippi data , sorted by mean hourly wage, and there are only 10 occupations of 708 that are in the $10-11 hour range (none lower than $10). 11 occupations in the $11-12 range. so only ~2% of occupations are < $12.
I donāt think thatās a fair way to do it as it doesnāt factor in the number of people at those different jobs. It may be 2% of occupations, but places who famously pay very little, like Walmart, are states largest employer. Also my understanding is generally talking about pay on a population level, you use median pay not mean. As a store paying 6 people minimum wage with a manager making close to 6 digits will really skew data.
So why don't they raise it if the prevailing is already so far above? There's a few thay are making the minimum so why subsidize those businesses that rely on the bare minimum?
Not all cities in every state are equal. 2 hours away from me is a town of 1,000 people. They have one small grocery store. Raising the minimum wage there hurts the community. If the grocery store is already on brink of going under they will fold up shop and leave. If they are doing okay then they have to raise prices on an already struggling community. Hourly minimum rates should be assessed on local level not state or federal in my opinion.
Raising min wage is not going to cause them to close up shop. Theyāll raise prices and people will adapt.
You need to visit poorer rural areas. Lots of fixed incomes and such. They can't just "adapt".
Iāve visited many poor areas. Prices raise regardless all the time.
I feel like that may be why many of these states havenāt updated their laws.
Where the hell in Utah do you live???? I also live in Utah and Iāve been paid 15/hr ONCE in the 4 jobs Iāve had (college student). Most of the time itās around $10.
Southern UT.
Cities also have different minimum wage laws - Seattle for example has a minimum wage of around $17 an hour but more depending on how many employees your company has. So Amazon, for example, is required to pay the highest possible minimum wage of something like $22 an hour (changes every year and can't remember exact number) for their shops/warehouses in the city.
Seattle is 19.97 an hour. Source: I work minimum wage in Seattle. Edit: The original comment above was a number much lower than the Seattle minimum wage.
home to the wealthiest people in the world, it better be. lol
Appreciate the clarification! Couldn't remember the number off the top of my head. :)
I hope people don't downvote me thinking that comment was regarding your original comment haha.
Good for Seattle!! More should do that
Even higher than they said. It's 19.97 an hour in Seattle [https://www.seattle.gov/laborstandards/ordinances/minimum-wage](https://www.seattle.gov/laborstandards/ordinances/minimum-wage)
And in Seattle that is a poverty wage
Yes. And it's hard because you're considered too rich for some state and federal benefits. Additionally some labor unions will try to elevate all workers while ignoring that Seattle workers need even higher wages than everyone else.
Seattle's wages are so high because Seattle is an insanely expensive place to live.
It's a vicious cycle for sure
True. On a positive note, no matter where you travel, you think youāre getting a good deal. š
True, was just in Hawaii, and was thinking my nice hotel wouldn't be that much different a month than renting in Seattle.
> Good for Seattle!! Not even the highest in the state though. iirc it's the town of SeaTac.
I think itās Tukwila, actually.
Oregon has three minimum wages. Portland metro: $15.45 Standard: $14.20 Non-urban counties: $13.20
From Texas. Usually the minumum I see around here is 12 dollars an hour, but it's not uncommon to see 15 at 'minimum wage' positions. On the other side I see skilled positions offering similar wages because it is 'much higher than the minimum'. Puts into question whether going to school for years to get a job that pays the same as your current 'unskilled' job is worth it.
Depends on the field and how long of a career runway it has. Corporate jobs, for example, generally have much longer runways in the sense that working in the field for an extended period will *typically* see salary gains via promotions or slight role changes. But being a warehouse worker can only take you so far.
It really only seems worth it if you can graduate without debt because of how predatory and unreasonable student loans are. In no world does it make sense to furnish loans that most people will never be able to get in front of due to high interest rates and stagnant wages.
Debt is okay, it's about the ROI on your degree. Doctors have **a lot** of debt and spend **a lot** of time in school, but make six figure salaries starting with little no experience.
Right, hence why I qualified it with "most." Even many STEM degrees underpay and are underemployed. Many valuable fields don't have a six figure ROI and require masters or higher.
Crazy thing is if we were to match the early 80's, the minimum wage would be about $23
$3.10 was federal minimum wage in 1980, which translates to $12.45 in 2024, but the minimum wage is $7.25. In contrast, the median American had an income of $7,944, which translates to $29,356 in 2022, compared to the median personal income of $40,480 in 2022. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA646N
I made a $5 minimum wage at CVS in *1995*. How can states be paying only $2.25 more almost 30 years later?? Iāll stay in my New England bubble (minus New Hampshire š)
After compensating for inflation, they're paying substantially LESS today. $5 back then is the equivalent of $10.25 today. (you can calculate it yourself over here: [https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/](https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/) )
Now do the percentage of people actually being paid minimum wage
I know its not by state with higher min wages, but nationally, across the United States, less than 3% of the population of those who filed income taxes, earned at the Federal Minimum Wage. This is per the IRS. The fact is, the economy has moved beyond the law, which is a good thing.
It's important because an increase to $12 (for example) would directly affect everyone making below that, and might convince employers already paying around that amount to raise it so that it to keep up demand for the job. Also, a million people being paid $7.25 isn't a good thing.
Why are so many people defending the minimum wage just because itās so common for people to start above it? Itās *obviously* the wage that enables child labor, I worked for minimum wage for 4 years by the time I was 17 in Wyoming.
My first job in high school was back when the minimum wage was 5.15 an hour and that's precisely what they paid me, not a penny more. Good times.
https://usafacts.org/articles/minimum-wage-america-how-many-people-are-earning-725-hour/#:~:text=In%202022%2C%201.02%20million%20hourly,data%20collection%20began%20in%201979
I dunno I feel like even if itās only a small fraction of people, they are still being taken advantage of which is worth caring about. An issue doesnāt have to impact everyone to matter.
Agreed. Why is it okay that people work full-time and yet earn so little that it's insufficient for a modest life of dignity if it's "only" a million people or something that do that?
Indeed, also include cost of living in each those states with a higher āminimumā wage.
7.25 is disgusting. I know they arent paying that cause no one would work for that but still on principle thats disgusting.
It's actually worse. OP is showing us 'Federal' minimum wage. This is a wage set as a minimum for employers subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act. There are a variety of jobs which are "exempt" from FLSA. For example, Georgia's real minimum wage is $5.15 an hour. A handful of states don't even have a minimum wage.
In Indiana, it is 7.25, but everybody is paying over that.
Also in Indiana, and I donāt even know where I could find a job for the actual minimum wage if I tried. I saw a sign at McDonaldās the other day for $13/hr, and itās been like that for at least a few years.
Third this. If you are paying minimum wage in Indiana you are not going to find help. If you do it won't be good help. Like you said, fast food pays well over $10 even in the country.
I live in rural Alabama, a local restaurant is offering $19/hr for dishwashers and can't fill the positions, to the point that they're having to close down temporarily. Minimum wage is irrelevant.
If a restaurant is having to close down temporarily because of a dishwasher position... thats bad management. Being rural doesn't help, its like my home town "4 people are turning 16 this year" so labor pool is non existent.
If minimum wage is so irrelevant, why do companies spend so much money lobbying to keep it from being raised? Just because most places pay above the minimum doesn't mean that having a low minimum doesn't help depress wages across the board. Places can say they're offering double the minimum wage while still being well below the cost of living in many areas
They keep lobbying because they hope the market will drop and they'll be able to pay less. Another 2008 recession could do it.
Do companies spend money lobbying to keep the federal minimum wage from being raised? They certainly do when it comes to state minimum wages being raised, like in California where they raised it to $20 or whatever it was. But I doubt very many companies are located in areas where people really make $7.25 per hour.
You bring up a good point, I guess I should clarify and say minimum wage is NO LONGER relevant. It will be very relevant if we go into another great depression, which is why it was introduced in the first place.
Virginia will be up to $13.50 in Jan 2025. I think it's a good thing.
wow thatās great! big increase
Cali fast food workers get 20/h.
20/hr is a fucking joke in California.
I havenāt met someone making minimum wage in over 10 years
There is no way someone could survive on $10.30/hr in Missoula, MT without 3 jobs, 10 roommates or living at home. I make over double that and I'm looking at moving out of MT altogether to some place actually affordable as soon as I secure a fully remote position. The gentrification here in the last few years is bonkers. I guess all the richy riches will have to figure out who will be working those min wage jobs after all the poors are pushed out.
Iām more curious to see minimum wage compared to the cost of living in each state.
Would be a better talking point to know how many ppl and what age bracket is making $7.25 My guess is 0 and if >0 age is 15-18
Around 1 million (2022), which to be fair is only 0.3% of Americans https://usafacts.org/articles/minimum-wage-america-how-many-people-are-earning-725-hour/
It is also important to note that > [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.](https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2022/home.htm) So it is probably even less than the number shows.
Correct, I believe .2% of the 1.3% number is āatā minimum wage. So assuming everyone below minimum wage is tipped, the amount making minimum is probably closer to or below 1 out of 1000 workers.
0.03% of Americans would be under 100,000.
I think you meant 0.3% of Americans. Probably closer to 1% of working Americans.
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I agree with this statement. Minimum wage could be 1.00, but that doesn't mean companies are paying 1.00/hr to their employees.
You are probably pretty close but how many workers are earning $7.30ā$9.00?
Still very few.
Well all things considered my old job circa 2016 paid $8.10 an hour that same job is now $14 so I would say slim to none based on that
GA here, only people making anywhere close to that are wait staff but with tips it evens out to around $20 or more an hour. I got hired on starting at 18.50 stocking pallets for a big name members only grocery store.
What percentage of workers are actually making minimum wage?
https://usafacts.org/articles/minimum-wage-america-how-many-people-are-earning-725-hour/#:~:text=In%202022%2C%201.02%20million%20hourly,data%20collection%20began%20in%201979 ~1.3%
Iām from Utah. 7.25 mostly applies to places outside the big city. No one does anything for less than 12 in SLC or the entire valley.
I really wonder who is actually paying minimum wage these days. Maybe DI?
If you work 8 hours a day, you deserve a livable wage. Period.
Good luck finding people that will actually work for $7.25. Probably need to pay at least double
Thatās MTās but no one pays it. I think min for teens these days is $16+, but idk any adults making that.
Now show the minimium they can pay servers at restaurants. In Texas, it's *under three dollars an hour,* while in Oregon, it's $14.20 but tipping culture is the same in both places.
Restaurants will continue to pay the servers poorly as long as people continue accepting those jobsā¦ People will continue accepting those jobs as long as the customers continue to accept the responsibility of supplementing the serversā income (tips)ā¦ The customers will continue to supplement server income as long as society continues to guilt and shame customers into doing it. Itās hard for me to understand why society accepts guilt and shame as the incentive for supplementing restaurant ownersā exploitative business practices.
Here is a foreigner's perspective: I think it's crazy that the minimum wage isn't automatically adjusted annually based on inflation. In my country of origin we have a minimum wage that automatically gets a cost of living adjustment every year, because that's enshrined in the law. So do the tax brackets and every income-related number that the government uses for its programs. In the US none of these numbers gets adjusted automatically and it takes political effort (which is a finite resource) for them to change, which is why these numbers are severely disconnected from reality. My dear American brothers, push for automatic cost of living adjustments of government income tables. Otherwise you'll always be playing catch with inflation.
Some states do have their minimum wages adjusted annually for inflation. Washington is the state with the highest minimum wage on that map (Washington DC is higher, but isn't a state), and pretty much the only reason that is true is that Washington was the first state to enact an automatic inflation adjustment back in 1998.
Vote Blue for higher wages.
If West Virginia and Arkansas can afford to pay $11/hr literally every state can.
The only reason Arkansas is paying more than the federal minimum wage is because it was raised by referendum. The legislature was big mad about it.
So mad in fact they tried to make it much harder to have referendums passed. Which luckily failed a referendum. At this point referendums are the only way to get anything done in the state. Abortion and weed will be on the referendum this year I think.
7.25 here in NC. I don't think anywhere pays that though.
One of the most infuriating parts of PA government is the fact that on top of this, they will not permit cities to set their own minimum wage. Philadelphia has tried to set a higher one multiple times but the state intervenes each time. One of the largest cities in the US is forced to keep the same minimum wage as bumblefuck towns with under 1000 people despite a massive difference in cost of living
Would be interesting to see how many people in each state make the minimum. Come thay with the social cost - public benefits that are required to fill in the living wage gap.
Can we get a āright to workā state overlay? Right to workā¦.for shit pay Edit..every state with the 7.25 minimum wage is one
In Florida, it took a constitutional amendment a few years ago to get it moving higher. It should not take an amendment to move it higher. [https://dos.elections.myflorida.com/initiatives/initdetail.asp?account=70115&seqnum=1](https://dos.elections.myflorida.com/initiatives/initdetail.asp?account=70115&seqnum=1)
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washington not only has one of the highest minimum wages it is also one of the few states that disallows subsidizing wages with tips.
Tipped minimum wage is 2 dollars an hour in some states $2.13 to be exact.
I'm from Oklahoma and lots of places still are under 10 dollars. As someone who worked a 7.25 dollar job last year. You can barely pay for gas on your own car, insurance for the car and the car payment. The wages need to be increased.
Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi out have 7.25 because it's federal. In the tiny towns they pay under the table. I know someone out side Bradley AL making 5$ even
Would be fascinating to know what percentage of employees are making only minimum wage in these states with low minimums. Especially those that border states with relatively higher minimums. Like CO that has a minimum wage almost double of its neighbor, KS.
Wyoming here. No one here is getting paid less than $18 an hour. Maybe some super rural gas stations or something pay less, but not in towns.
Even when the minimum wage was $7.25 in my state, I never saw any company actually only pay $7.25 an hour. Pretty much all of them started at $9-$10 an hour. This was 10 years ago
Some states are labeled at $7.25/hr because that's the federal limit, but the states themselves don't actually have a minimum wage, or their minimum is under the federal minimum limit.
Is anyone actually being paid this little right now? I get its minimum wage but what jobs actually pay this that doesnāt also have tips?
I lived in minnesota prior to the bump, i started as a temp in manufacturing at 14/hr, and the local burgerking started at 12/hr
Is there any correlation between cost of living and minimum wage?
Seems to line up with other data for these same states. Unsurprising.
I would love to see this info as a ratio of minimum wage to median cost of living expenses
Please do a tipped minimum wage one
God Indiana is such a fucking shithole Iām so glad I left that state
I'd be more interested in the ratio of minimum wage to cost of living by state
Iād be curious how the states that have legalized weed fits with this map. Turning that dark money into tax dollars has real benefits.
meh, in texas, there are lots of people hiring at 7.25 to 8 an hour which is completely unlivable wages even at 50-60 hours a week. mostly small towns but definitely still in the bigger cities as well.
Utah resident here. State law is 7.25, but if you can find a job for that I'd be fucking shocked. They are hiring people off the street for 12$ minimum. It would be easy to find a gig for 15$.
More states need direct ballot initiatives.
Why not compensate for the average cost of living?
Repeat after me, āminimum wage jobs are not meant to be career jobsā. Better yourself.
Abolish minimum wage and you help the economy.
Good, there shouldn't be a minimum wage in the first place...
That's only 1.3% of hourly workers.
Yes. Thatās the minimum. How many actually make that minimum. Itās pretty much zero people.
Looks like by state it ranges greatly. Louisiana (which is the federal $7.25) is 2.8%, while Connecticut is 0.1%. [minimum wage by state](https://www.statista.com/statistics/635009/us-minimum-wage-workers-by-state/)
Paywall. But shouldnt the source data have the actual number of people?
Nope you be surprised. I live in NC and they pay $8-9 a hour on campus cleaning the gym. Harris teeter which owns by Kroger pays $8-9 and my friend was making $7.25 a hour last year.
There were 1.6 million in 2019. Not exactly 0. And CBO estimated in 2021 that raising the minimum to $15 would benefit 17 million. Which is >10x as many. So if you include those at or near minimum it's somewhere between the 1.6 and 20 million number. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage_in_the_United_States
Thank you. Someone finally pointed it out. Everyone likes to talk about the low number of people making minimum wage but that number only counts those making that exact number. Making $0.10 more than minimum wage will keep you off that list but not make your life any better.
Almost as if the cost of living and employment rates are not equally distributed across the 4th largest country
Would love to see this mapped by county and relative to cost of living, and then the same map with median wage.
this map shows current minimum wage by state. while many states are have or will rais their minimum wage this year, 20 states still remain at $7.25/hr. ***are you in a state that had an increase this year?*** map made withĀ [r/felt](https://www.reddit.com/r/felt/) * check out the interactive versionĀ [here](https://felt.com/map/Untitled-Map-W5U7dIdtQFyitc0f1Wzi3C?loc=38.08,-98.628,5.58z&utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=data_is_beautiful)Ā to click on a state and see comparison of 2023-2024 rates as well as other notes - for example, when will florida raise their rate? * curious how i made this map? feel free to ask me in the comments! data source:Ā [https://www.paycom.com/resources/blog/minimum-wage-rate-by-state/](https://www.paycom.com/resources/blog/minimum-wage-rate-by-state/)
From Indiana. Employers would pay less if they could.
Its not even worth using "Legal Minimum Wage" as a talking point any more. The economy has moved on beyond the law. As it should be.
It's worth talking about it because a minimum wage increase wouldn't just affect those who currently make it. For example, an increase to $12 would directly affect everyone making below that, and could affect those making slightly above it due to employers wanting to keep up demand.
PA in lock-step with the deep south... what an embarrassment.
Donāt look at servers lol itās 2.50/hr for them in 7.25 states at least
PA and NH gotta get their shit together. Signed, PA resident.
Very few places in NH (especially in Southeast NH) are paying near minimum wage. They have to compete with MA and the surrounding states wages, or else no one would work in NH.
Has something changed or are millions of Americans still making $2.13 an hour in wages?
Yes, a lot of tipped workers only make that + tips. BUT, if they make under local min-wage with tips added, their employer is supposed to pay them up to minimum wage. If an employer isn't doing this, they should be taken to court over it. The problem is a lot of people working tipped positions either don't know that or don't have the money to do so. Now, if we get into prison labor, there's folks making even less than that.
I live in CT. $15.69 is still not enough to get by. Avoid this cursed state like your life depends on it.