About Minimum Wage and Today’s Strikes at Fast-Food Chains
5th December 2013
‘It ain’t necessarily so….’
Here are some things to think about:
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Fewer than 3 percent of all workers in the United States make the minimum wage. The percentage drops further if you’re talking about full-time employees.
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77 percent of minimum wage earners belong to households above the poverty line.
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51 percent of minimum wage earners are 24 years or younger. Of the minimum wage earners over 24, less than a quarter are below the poverty line and 62 percent live in households that are at or above 150 percent of the poverty line.
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Even economists who question whether hiking the minimum wage causes significant unemployment for low-skilled workers tend to agree that doubling wages will reduce jobs.
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A recent New York Times story titled “Life on $7.25 an Hour” centered on a man who had a job paying $13 an hour and who owned a $500,000 house.
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The protests are organized by groups affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and inlcude calls for unionizing fast-food workers along with the demand to double the minimum wage to $15 an hour.