Minimum Wage (2024)

FAQs

What is the answer to the minimum wage? ›

The federal minimum wage for covered nonexempt employees is $7.25 per hour. Many states also have minimum wage laws. In cases where an employee is subject to both the state and federal minimum wage laws, the employee is entitled to the higher of the two minimum wages.

Raise the minimum wage and expand coverage at the federal, state, and local levels—to move the minimum wage closer to a living wage. Make more workers eligible for overtime pay, so they are properly paid for the long hours they put in.

The primary argument advanced in favor of raising the minimum wage is that higher earnings would improve the overall standard of living for minimum wage workers by providing them with a more appropriate income level to handle the cost of living increases.

The minimum wage in the United States is no longer a living wage. Many states are paying more than this amount but minimum wage earners continue to struggle to make ends meet. The federal minimum wage hasn't kept up with the cost of living in more than half a century at $7.25 per hour.

Raising the federal minimum wage will also stimulate consumer spending, help businesses' bottom lines, and grow the economy. A modest increase would improve worker productivity, and reduce employee turnover and absenteeism. It would also boost the overall economy by generating increased consumer demand.

In many places, $15 per hour wouldn't be a sufficient living wage for a single person. Even without children, living wages in Hawaii and Washington D.C. are $19.43 and $20.49, respectively.

However, even that amount is inadequate to truly support working families. A true living wage that supports a basic standard of living without food and housing insecurity would be between $20 and $26 or more per hour depending on the state.

Saving small amounts regularly can build a financial cushion over time. Government assistance programs can help cover essential costs like food and healthcare. Additional income through side jobs or higher-paying positions can alleviate financial strain.

A living wage is a pay rate that would allow a given worker or household to afford its basic needs, such as housing, food, health care and transportation.

The purpose of the minimum wage was to stabilize the post-depression economy and protect the workers in the labor force. The minimum wage was designed to create a minimum standard of living to protect the health and well-being of employees.

How does minimum wage reduce poverty? ›

If the people earning the minimum wage are heads of low-income households, higher minimum wages are likely to reduce poverty. If low-income workers lose jobs and cannot find new jobs because of a higher minimum wage, social safety nets for low-income households can protect against increased poverty.

If we could, we'd realize that $15 an hour amounts to only $31,200 a year, assuming full-time work—about half of the U.S. median income and a painfully small amount for living and raising children in most American cities.” It can be painfully small outside of cities, too.

A single mother with two children earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour needs to work 252 hours per week, the equivalent of almost six full-time minimum-wage jobs, to make a living wage. Across all family sizes, the living wage exceeds the poverty threshold, often used to identify needs.

What Is the Living Wage in the U.S.? The living wage in the United States was $25.02 per hour in 2022 or $104,077.70 per year before taxes based on a family of four with two working adults and two children. 2 This varies by state, however.

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.

The movement for minimum wages was first motivated as a way to stop the exploitation of workers in sweatshops, by employers who were thought to have unfair bargaining power over them. Over time, minimum wages came to be seen as a way to help lower-income families.

The federal minimum wage in 2024 is $7.25 per hour.

However, the tipped wage rate is $2.13 per hour, so long as each employee earns enough actual tips during the workweek to make up the other $5.12 per hour.

An analysis of the living wage (as calculated in December 2022 and reflecting a compensation being offered to an individual in 2023), compiling geographically specific expenditure data for food, childcare, health care, housing, transportation, and other necessities, finds that: The living wage in the United States is ...