About 6 in 10 workers earning the minimum wage or less in 2009 were employed in service occupations, mostly in food preparation and serving related jobs. By major occupational group, the highest proportion of workers earning at or below the Federal minimum wage was in service occupations, about 13 percent.Part-time workers (persons who usually work less than 35 hours per week) were more likely than their full-time counterparts to be paid the Federal minimum wage or less (about 11 percent versus about 2 percent).Never-married workers, who tend to be young, were more likely than married workers to earn the Federal minimum wage or less (about 9 percent versus about 3 percent).Among hourly-paid workers age 16 and over, about 10 percent of those who had less than a high school diploma earned the Federal minimum wage or less, compared with about 4 percent of those who had a high school diploma (with no college) and about 3 percent of college graduates.Among Asian hourly-paid workers, about 4 percent earned the minimum wage or less. About 5 percent of white, black, and Hispanic hourly-paid workers earned the Federal minimum wage or less. The percentage of workers earning the minimum wage did not vary much across the major race and ethnicity groups.About 6 percent of women paid hourly rates had wages at or below the prevailing Federal minimum, compared with about 4 percent of men.Among employed teenagers paid by the hour, nearly 19 percent earned the minimum wage or less, compared with about 3 percent of workers age 25 and over. ![]() Although workers under age 25 represented only about one-fifth of hourly-paid workers, they made up about half of those paid the Federal minimum wage or less. Minimum wage workers tend to be young.The following are some highlights from the 2009 data. Tables 1-10 present data on a wide array of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics for hourly-paid workers earning at or below the Federal minimum wage. 2 Together, these 3.6 million workers with wages at or below the minimum made up 4.9 percent of all hourly-paid workers. ![]() Nearly 2.6 million had wages below the minimum. Among those paid by the hour, 980,000 earned exactly the prevailing Federal minimum wage in 2009. Data in this report reflect the average number of workers earning the prevailing Federal minimum wage or less for the calendar year 2009 (those who earned $6.55 or less from January 2009 through July 2009 and those who earned $7.25 or less from August 2009 through the end of the year). 1 On July 24, 2009, the Federal minimum wage increased to $7.25 per hour from $6.55 per hour. In 2009, 72.6 million American workers age 16 and over were paid at hourly rates, representing 58.3 percent of all wage and salary workers. Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2009
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