Minimum Wage at Lowest Level in 40 Years.
$5.15 an Hour. Bush Doesn't Want to Raise it.
The minimum wage was created to make sure everyone who worked would make enough to live on. For much of the past century, the minimum wage was maintained at roughly half of the average hourly earnings in America. Today it is $5.15, only a third of average hourly earnings and the lowest level in 50 years. And according to a new study by the nonpartisan Working Poor Families Project, one out of every five U.S. jobs pays less than a poverty-level wage for a family of four. That means "39 million Americans, including 20 million children" barely have enough money to pay for basic necessities like housing, food and child care. [more
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The minimum wage was created to make sure everyone who worked would make enough to live on. For much of the past century, the minimum wage was maintained at roughly half of the average hourly earnings in America. Today it is $5.15, only a third of average hourly earnings and the lowest level in 50 years. And according to a new study by the nonpartisan Working Poor Families Project, one out of every five U.S. jobs pays less than a poverty-level wage for a family of four. That means "39 million Americans, including 20 million children" barely have enough money to pay for basic necessities like housing, food and child care. [more
]