According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, not so many – which is a surprise:
Age. Minimum wage workers tend to be young. Although workers under age 25 represented nearly one-fifth of hourly paid workers, they made up 44 percent of those paid the federal minimum wage or less. Among employed teenagers (ages 16 to 19) paid by the hour, 4 percent earned the minimum wage or less, compared with 1 percent of workers age 25 and older. (See tables 1 and 7.)
Source: Characteristics of minimum wage workers, 2021 : BLS Reports: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Secretary of Labor does not understand this:
“It shocks me that there are members in the building behind me, if you can’t see the building behind me it’s the Capitol, that think that families can raise their family on $7-plus, on the minimum wage in this country,” he said.
A ‘catastrophe’ is coming for economy: Labor Secretary Marty Walsh (cnbc.com)
Except very few families are earning the Federal minimum wage per the BLS, and about 30 states mandate higher minimum wages.
He wants to see more immigration (which may reduce wages) which is in conflict with his comments about wages not being high enough (more at the link).
This point on demographics is underappreciated in terms of future impacts:
The demographic data on the U.S. working age population is concerning, with baby boomer retirements expected to accelerate in the years ahead, compounded by a peak being reached in high school graduates by 2025, limiting both the total size of the next generation labor pool and the transfer of knowledge between the generations of workers.
Left out is the reason – it’s not “boomer” retirements – it is a lack of births. Our economy is structured around an increasing population, where each generation would be larger than the prior generation. Today, the next cohorts are smaller due to low birth rates.
Economists all say to solve this through immigration. Except every country is faced with the same issues and there will not be enough skilled immigrants willing to relocate to other countries for this to work for all.
Finally, he suggest we need Federal child care benefits to encourage more women (but not men) to be in the work force. Except as noted in an earlier post, every program in the world that has tried social benefit programs to increase family sizes, has failed. See:
The actual solution will be continued business process efficiency improvements and more automation.
But that will be opposed by unions, which the Secretary of Labor wants to see more of …
The Secretary of Labor holds many views that conflict with each other.
