• aidan@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    “It doesn’t matter what minimum wage is because lots of people make more than minimum wage!”

    Which is kinda true when essentially no-one except for teenagers makes minimum wage.

    • otp@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      essentially no-one except for teenagers makes minimum wage.

      Do you have a source for that?

      • aidan@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        1.1% of workers earned the minimum wage or less

        44% being under 25, despite only 20% of total workers being under 25.

        This data doesn’t not include tips or commissions.

        70% of those earning at or below minimum wage worked in hospitality, 65% food preparation and serving related. 49% were part time workers.

        0.8% of all workers earned minimum wage or below, but 3.1% of 16-19 year olds did.

        Unfortunately it doesn’t break down with tips/commissions. But you can sort of innacurrately guess at it by seeing that 57% of the below minimum wage is 25+. This means they are earning tips (assuming their not paid illegally). So, majority of those earning minimum wage without tips are probably 16-24.

        • otp@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          Thank you for the source. 1.1% is a small percentage, but a lot of people, especially when talking about a country the size of the US.

          Another element that’s difficult to capture, but relevant, is how many people are making wages that would be influenced by a raised minimum wage? Raising it one dollar would probably capture a lot of people. Raising it $5 even more. The $15/h some places were championing for would likely capture quite a lot of people, especially of it were enacted nation-wide, but I understand that that’s a very far reach.

          I worked at a place that paid minimum wage + X, where X was based on experience and such. This included new hires. At some point, they stopped bumping previous employees up when minimum wage went up, and of course they wondered why a lot of long-term staff were quitting lol