Where the Minimum Wage Would Be If It Kept Pace With the Earnings of the 1%

By Alan Pyke

December 2, 2013  |  If the minimum wage had grown at the same rate as the earnings of the top one percent of Americans the federal wage floor would be more than triple [2] the current hourly minimum of $7.25. Instead, the minimum wage has been lower than a poverty wage ever since 1982.

The New York Times compiled those and other basic facts about the minimum wage into an infographic. Together with demographic data about who actually holds [3] minimum-wage jobs — less than a quarter of the minimum-wage workforce are teenagers, and nearly four in ten are over the age of 30 — the graphic makes the fundamental case for fighting inequality and economic hardship by raising the minimum wage.