{"id":19019,"date":"2014-05-05T14:48:25","date_gmt":"2014-05-05T19:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/more-women-than-men-earn-the-federal-minimum-wage\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:44:28","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:44:28","slug":"more-women-than-men-earn-the-federal-minimum-wage","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/05\/05\/more-women-than-men-earn-the-federal-minimum-wage\/","title":{"rendered":"More women than men earn the federal minimum wage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Substantially more women than men are in jobs that pay the minimum wage or less, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a> data analyzed by the Pew Research Center. Men make up a larger share of the U.S. labor force than women (53%-47%). But among those who earn the minimum wage or less, 62% are women and 38% are men.<\/p>\n\n

\"More<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Congress is debating a hike to the federal minimum wage (currently $7.25 per hour), an idea that has strong support<\/a> among the American public. Last week, a bill backed by the White House<\/a> that would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 failed to advance in the Senate<\/a>. (Meanwhile, 21 states<\/a> and some cities have a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum.)<\/p>\n\n

In 2012, women\u2019s hourly wages were 84% those of men \u2013 meaning that women earned about 84 cents for every $1 made by men, a gender pay gap<\/a> of 16 cents, according to a Pew Research Center report<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Among those paid by the hour, some 5.4% of women (2.1 million workers) made the federal minimum wage or less in 2013. For men, that share is 3.3%, or 1.2 million workers. (Some people may be paid below the federal minimum wage, including those who make tips<\/a>.) The difference has narrowed since 1979, when the share of hourly workers who earned federal minimum wage or less was 20.2% for women and 7.7% for men.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

The biggest gap is between young women and young men. Among hourly workers ages 20 to 24, some 10.0% of women made the federal minimum wage or less in 2013, compared with 5.8% of men. By comparison, the gender gap narrows for older workers. Among hourly workers ages 30 to 34, some 4.0% of women made the federal minimum wage or less, compared with 2.7% of men. Among workers ages 60 to 64, women and men are about equally likely to work at the federal minimum wage\u20141.5% of women did in 2013, compared with 1.2% of men.<\/p>\n\n