Who is minimum wage

To help us improve GOV. It will take only 2 minutes to fill in. Cookies on GOV. UK We use some essential cookies to make this website work. Accept additional cookies Reject additional cookies View cookies. Hide this message. Part of Get your business ready to employ staff: step by step. Print entire guide. Step 1 : Decide what type of employee you need. Check whether you need full time or part time staff Check the different types of employment status.

Check how much the National Minimum Wage is Find out how much National Insurance you need to pay for your employees Check how much sick pay your employees are eligible for Check how much you need to pay towards your employee's pension Check how much Maternity Leave you need to pay your employees Check how much Paternity Leave you need to pay your employees. Step 2 : Make your workplace safe and accessible for employees. Black or African American 1. Asian 1. Hispanic or Latino 1.

Full-time workers 2. Part-time workers 2. Footnotes 1 Estimates for the above race groups—White, Black or African American, and Asian—do not sum to totals because data are not presented for all races. Persons whose ethnicity is identified as Hispanic or Latino may be of any race. These data will not sum to totals because full- or part-time status on the principal job is not identifiable for a small number of multiple jobholders.

Full time is 35 hours or more per week; part time is less than 35 hours. Note: Data exclude all self-employed persons whether or not their businesses are incorporated. Source: U. Bureau of Labor Statistics. These data are based on a sample and therefore are subject to sampling error; the degree of error may be quite large for less populous states. Effective with January data, occupations reflect the introduction of the Census occupational classification system, derived from the Standard Occupational Classification SOC.

No historical data have been revised. Data for are not strictly comparable with earlier years. Married, spouse present 1. Widowed, divorced, or separated 2. Footnotes 1 Beginning with data for , refers to people in both opposite-sex and same-sex married couples. Prior to , referred to people in opposite-sex married couples only. Note: Data exclude all self-employed workers, whether or not their businesses are incorporated. Estimates of usual hours worked presented in this table differ from usual full- or part-time status as shown in table 1 because of a sizable number of workers whose usual hours vary on the primary job.

Footnotes 1 Data for —, —, and — reflect changes in the minimum wage that took place in those years. Note: The comparability of historical labor force data has been affected at various times by methodological and conceptual changes in the Current Population Survey CPS.

The estimates in this report were obtained from the Current Population Survey CPS , which provides information on the labor force, employment, and unemployment. The survey is conducted monthly for the U. Census Bureau using a nationally representative sample of about 60, eligible households in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The survey also provides data on earnings, which are based on one-fourth of the CPS monthly sample and are limited to wage and salary workers. All self-employed workers, whether or not their businesses are incorporated, are excluded from these earnings estimates. This information is available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice telephone: ; Federal Relay Service: The principal definitions used in connection with the estimates of minimum wage workers presented in this report are described briefly below.

Wage and salary workers are people age 16 and older who receive wages, salaries, commissions, tips, payments in kind, or piece rates on their sole or principal job. This group includes employees in both the private and public sectors. All self-employed workers are excluded whether or not their businesses are incorporated. Workers paid by the hour are wage and salary workers who report that they are paid at an hourly rate on their job.

Historically, workers paid an hourly wage have made up approximately three-fifths of all wage and salary workers. Estimates of workers paid by the hour include both full- and part-time workers unless otherwise specified.

Hourly earnings for hourly paid workers do not include overtime pay, commissions, or tips received. Workers paid at or below the prevailing federal minimum wage include only workers who are paid hourly rates. Salaried workers and other nonhourly paid workers are excluded. Regular collection of earnings data in the basic CPS began in The prevailing federal minimum wage for and later years is listed in the following table. Estimates of the annual average number of minimum wage workers for years when the minimum wage increased during the year reflect both minimum wage levels in effect during the year.

Full-time workers are defined as those who usually work 35 hours or more per week at their sole or principal job. Part-time workers are defined as those who usually work fewer than 35 hours per week at their sole or principal job. Race is reported by the household respondent. Data for other race groups--American Indians and Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders--and for people of Two or More Races are included in totals but not separately identified in this report because the number of survey respondents is too small to develop estimates of acceptable reliability.

Hispanic or Latino ethnicity refers to people who identified themselves in the survey process as being of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin. People who identify themselves as Hispanic or Latino ethnicity may be of any race. Others have argued that the primary purpose was to aid the lowest paid of the nation's working population, those who lacked sufficient bargaining power to secure for themselves a minimum subsistence wage.

FLSA specifically provided for a minimum wage for full time and part time, public and private sector workers. Courts also look at a variety of factors that are similar to those used in the common law tort context to differentiate employees from independent contractors. For example, courts will look at the degree of control the alleged employer has over the way in which the work is performed - typically an employer will have more of a degree of control over an employee, compared to the degree of control that an employer would have over an independent contractor.

Congress exempted certain employees from the minimum wage provisions, for example: executives, administrators, professionals, and outside salespersons.

It is likely that Congress believed that these employees had a higher level of bargaining power and were not as vulnerable to overreaching by their employers. Other exceptions apply under specific circumstances to workers with disabilities or full-time students. FLSA authorizes the Secretary of Labor to use several different methods to evaluate an employer's conduct and enforce the minimum wage requirement.