Jackson Free Press

Last Friday, the federal minimum wage increased by 70 cents an hour, going from $6.55 to $7.25. The increase will affect thousands of workers in Mississippi, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reports that approximately 6 percent of 2008 hourly employees in the Magnolia state worked for minimum wage or less.

All told, roughly 2.8 million people will get an immediate raise, nationwide. The Economic Policy Institute estimates, however, that 4.5 million people—less than 4 percent of the national work force—will see a bump in their paychecks, some of those from a "spillover effect" where other employees already making more than minimum wage may see a raise to keep a wage structure consistent.

BLS statistics shed some light on who makes minimum wage in America. About half of all minimum wage workers are under age 25. About 4 percent of female workers and 2 percent of male workers bring home minimum wage or less. Of workers over 16, 5 percent of those without a high school diploma and 2 percent with college degrees also earn minimum wage or less. Statistics for ethnic groups shows little variance.

Working 40 hours a week, $7.25 an hour grosses a $290 check, an increase of $30 over the previous $6.55 and hour, or $15,080 a year. After payroll taxes, take home pay is probably around $12,800. For anyone attempting to feed a family, that is still well below the $18,000 poverty level for a family of three.

The people who will not benefit from the increase are people who also work for tips, such as restaurant wait staff. Waiters and waitresses minimum salary is $2.13. Theoretically, tips adequately supplement their pay. In reality, though, the poverty rate for wait staff is three times the national average, according to Reuters.

Previous Commentsshow

I may pay for the meal with a debit card, but I always tip in cash, and tip well. That philosophy has yielded a rate of return in Tequila that would make a Goldman Sachs trader envious. Cheers!

Jeffery R

Jul 27 2009

I think the minimum wage for any city should be at least $8.00. I hope that there will be several increases soon for the workers throughout the state of Mississippi.

Dee8888

Jul 27 2009

In order to meet the poverty level of $18,000 for a family of 3, we would need a minimum wage of $8.65 per hour for a full time employee. This is not likely to happen as long as we continue to elect politicians, both Republican and Democrat, that pander to the multinational corporations who are the prime beneficiaries of low wages. Republicans and Democrats alike have failed the American people. In that respect we have failed ourselves because we continually re-elect people with records of not acting in our best interest. It is going to take a grass roots effort to build a political party that represents the interest of the majority while begin careful not to pander to extremists on the far right or left. We need a party that will put Americans first and put America back to work. Currently, both parties have failed us. The evidence is plain to see in the boarded up store fronts, the increasing unemployment numbers and the fact that people can make a living by promoting hate speech on talk radio.

Jeffery R

Jul 28 2009

Why stop at at $8.65 an hour? That's only right at the poverty line. If government should set wages then why should the government set a wage that doesn't boost anyone out of poverty?

WMartin

Jul 28 2009

WMartin, I'm pretty sure you're being facetious, but your question is a good one. Poverty has plagued the planet for eons. But is it inevitable or something artificial that can be resolved?

Ronni_Mott

Jul 28 2009

Not really Ronni. I mean, it is serious. Maybe a little around the way to make the point that the government can't set some arbitrary wage number and fix the problem of poverty. I think to believe it can is naive. I do like your question better though. I think if you mean can we, as a nation, raise all of our people to some reasonable standard of living? Yes, we could, if those people wanted to participate in their own prosperity and the government really addressed the root causes. I don't believe that will happen in our lifetime though, unfortunately. Because you get poverty from so many different sources it has to be tackled in so many different ways. Mainly, in my opinion, through access to education. I really believe that if we took a lot of the resources that we waste on so many other programs and funneled all of that into providing greater opportunities for people to get themselves educated, whether in trades or higher education, we would solve a lot of the need for the very same wasteful programs. I think that education leads to understanding and we need that so much more than anything else right now. We need people to understand what their role is in our society and get them invested in it. We need people to understand how the system works and how we can change it to help everyone and not just ourselves. That kinda change is gonna take a while. I do believe that some people will always be in poverty, whether it's addictions or mental illness or just plain old stupidity. I don't mean necessarily the same people all the time but that some will get out and some will fall into it. But if we had a mostly educated enlightened population, a safety net to catch those that fall and help them back up would be a whole lot easier to maintain.

WMartin

Jul 28 2009