USCCB - (SDWP) - Facts about the Minimum Wage and Minimum Wage Workers

increase the annual income of a full-time worker by more than $2,000 each year;
increase the real value of the minimum wage in 2001 to the buying power level it had in 1982;
benefit 7 million or 69% of adult workers age 20 and over currently receiving the minimum wage;
benefit 6.6 million female workers or 65% of all minimum wage workers;
increase earnings for 4.6 million full-time workers or 45% of all minimum wage workers;
benefit 16% of African American workers;
benefit 20% of Hispanic American workers;
benefit 83% of female-headed households; and,
enhance the earnings of the 40% of minimum wage workers who are the sole breadwinners for their families.

Today's purchasing power of the minimum wage is less than that of 1996 minimum wage of $4.75. Failure to secure an increase in the minimum wage this year will result in a real loss in income for workers, essentially wiping out the gains of the last two – the1996 and the1997 -- minimum wage increases.

While opponents of the minimum wage increase argue that increasing the minimum wage will lead to a loss of jobs for the lowest paid workers, such arguments have not been bourne out by the data. Since the 1996-97 increase took effect, jobs have been added in virtually every sector of the economy. Furthermore, more than two dozen independent studies have found moderate increases in the minimum wage have an insignificant effect on employment.

Attached you will find a copy of the bill and a state-by-state breakdown of the number of people that would be helped by an increase in the minimum wage.

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