September 10, 2024

The Center's minimum wage brief was included in a story about Bank of America increasing wages for works to $24 per hour.

"In 2021, Drexel University’s Center for Hunger-Free Communities released a report titled “Minimum Wage is Not Enough” that said employees working full-time at minimum wage cannot afford basic necessities, such as food, housing, transportation, childcare, and healthcare in any location across the U.S. Per the report, an estimated 247,000 people earned exactly the federal minimum wage in 2020 and 865,000 received below the federal minimum in mostly tip-supplemented roles."

“'The most common misconception about minimum wage workers is they are primarily teenagers working summer or high school jobs,' said the report. 'However, in reality, teens aged 16 to 19 make up only about ten percent of workers making minimum wage or less. Almost half of front-line retail workers are 35 or older.'”

"Women make up 67% of the workers making minimum wage or less, according to Drexel’s report. These women usually work in home care, child care, food service, hotel accommodations and retail."

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