Bureau of Labor Statistics
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CONTACT: Media Interviews (415) 625-2270 (415) 625-2285 Internet address: www.bls.gov/ro9/ro9news.htm
BLS 08-71 |
MINIMUM WAGE WORKERS IN CALIFORNIA: 2007
In 2007, 74,000 hourly-paid workers in California had earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage(1), according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. (See chart A.) Those earning the prevailing minimum wage or less comprised 0.8 percent of the approximately 8.8 million workers paid hourly rates in California(2) in 2007. Regional Commissioner Richard J. Holden noted that the State's share of workers at or below the Federal minimum was among the lowest in the nation (3). (See table 1.)
Chart A. Employed wage and salary workers paid hourly rates with earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage in California, annual averages, 1998-2007
According to Current Population Survey (CPS) estimates for 2007, 75.9 million workers in the United States were paid at hourly rates, representing 58.5 percent of all wage and salary workers. Of those paid by the hour, 267,000 were reported as earning exactly the prevailing Federal minimum wage. Nearly 1.5 million were reported as earning wages below the minimum. Together, these 1.7 million workers with wages at or below the Federal minimum made up 2.3 percent of all hourly-paid workers.
From 1998 to 2007, the number of hourly workers in California earning less than or equal to the prevailing Federal minimum wage decreased by 76.4 percent, from 314,000 in 1998 to 74,000 in 2007. However, most of this decline took place prior to 2001. Since that time, the number of workers receiving hourly wages at or below the Federal minimum in the State has not exceeded 84,000 or gone below 59,000. (See chart A.)
The number of workers at or below the Federal minimum wage in California rose by 14,000 in 2007; 13,000 of this increase was among men. As a result, men now account for 48.6 percent of all California hourly-paid workers who earned the prevailing Federal minimum wage or less, up from 38.3 percent in 2006. (See table A and chart B.)
Overall, California wage and salary workers paid hourly rates(4) had median hourly earnings of $12.29 in 2007; nationally, the median was $11.95. The 2007 median hourly rates for men and for women in California were $13.09 and $11.89, respectively. (See table A.) For the United States as a whole, the comparable figures were $12.95 for men and $10.98 for women.
Table A. Employed wage and salary workers paid hourly rates with earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage, and median earnings of all hourly-paid workers in California, annual averages, 1998-2007
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| At or below Federal Minimun Wage | All hourly-paid
| (number of workers in thousands) | workers
|----------------------------------|--------------------------
| | | | Number of | Median
| | Below | At | workers | earnings
California | Total |Prevailing| Prevailing |(thousands) | (in dollars)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total, both sexes
1998... 314 219 95 8,204 $9.29
1999... 201 167 34 8,419 9.54
2000... 113 81 32 8,507 9.96
2001... 76 59 17 8,521 10.22
2002... 84 72 12 8,409 10.72
2003... 59 54 5 8,537 11.20
2004... 72 46 26 8,575 11.60
2005... 82 62 20 8,846 11.78
2006... 60 50 10 8,562 12.06
2007... 74 65 9 8,785 12.29
Men
1998... 158 106 52 4,328 $9.86
1999... 100 78 22 4,525 10.03
2000... 41 32 9 4,517 10.25
2001... 28 22 6 4,507 10.89
2002... 44 39 5 4,416 11.13
2003... 28 24 4 4,470 11.86
2004... 29 21 8 4,492 11.91
2005... 26 18 8 4,684 12.00
2006... 23 21 2 4,503 12.82
2007... 36 33 3 4,661 13.09
Women
1998... 156 113 43 3,876 $8.85
1999... 101 89 12 3,894 8.94
2000... 72 49 23 3,990 9.26
2001... 48 38 10 4,014 10.01
2002... 40 33 7 3,993 10.14
2003... 31 30 1 4,067 10.81
2004... 43 25 18 4,083 11.15
2005... 56 44 12 4,162 11.18
2006... 37 29 8 4,059 11.27
2007... 38 32 6 4,124 11.89
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Among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in 2007, Mississippi, at 4.5 percent, had the highest proportion of hourly-paid workers earning at or
below the prevailing Federal minimum wage, followed by Louisiana at 4.3 percent. Texas, Massachusetts, and South Carolina tied for third with 4.0 percent
of hourly-paid workers at or below the Federal minimum. California, Washington, and Oregon had the lowest rates, each with less than 1 percent of
hourly-paid workers earning the Federal minimum or less. It should be noted that as of January 1, 2008, 33 states and the District of Columbia had laws
establishing minimum wage standards that exceeded the Federal level of $5.85 per hour(5). (See table 1 and chart C.)
Map source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment Standards Administration.
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(1) On July 24, 2007, the Federal minimum wage increased to $5.85 per hour from
$5.15 per hour. Data in this report reflect the average number of workers earning
the prevailing Federal minimum wage or less for the year those who earned $5.15 or
less from January 2007 through July 2007 and those who earned $5.85 or less from
August 2007 through the end of the year.
(2) Data are for wage and salary workers, excluding the incorporated self-employed,
and refer to earnings on a person's sole or principal job.
(3) It should be noted that the presence of a sizable number of workers with
reported wages below the minimum does not necessarily indicate violations of the
Fair Labor Standards Act, as there are exemptions to the minimum wage provisions of
the law.
(4) Wage rates in this release use median values. The median is the middle of a
distribution: half the scores are above the median and half are below the median.
The median is less sensitive to extreme wages than the mean; this makes it a better
measure than the mean for highly skewed distributions.
(5) U.S. Department of Labor, Employment Standards Administration, Wage and Hour
Division: http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm.
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Technical Note
The Bureau of Labor Statistics' data on minimum wage earners are derived from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a nationwide sample survey of households that includes questions enabling the identification of hourly-paid workers and their hourly wage rate. Data in this summary are annual averages.
Minimum wage data, particularly levels, for each year are not strictly comparable with data for earlier years because of the introduction of revised population controls used in the CPS. The effect of the revised population controls on the minimum wage estimates is unknown. However, the effect of the new controls in 2007 on the monthly CPS estimates for the U.S. was to increase the December 2006 employment level by 153,000 and the unemployment level by 10,000. The updated controls had little or no effect on unemployment rates and other ratios. For additional information, see "Adjustments to Household Survey Population Estimates in January 2007" in the February 2007 issue of Employment and Earnings, available on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps07adj.pdf.
It should be noted that the presence of a sizable number of workers with reported wages below the minimum does not necessarily indicate violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, as there are exemptions to the minimum wage provisions of the law. The estimates of the numbers of minimum and subminimum wage workers presented in the accompanying tables pertain to workers paid at hourly rates; salaried and other non-hourly workers are excluded. As such, the actual number of workers with earnings at or below the prevailing minimum is undoubtedly understated. Research has shown that a relatively smaller number and share of salaried workers and others not paid by the hour have earnings that, when translated into hourly rates, are at or below the minimum wage. However, BLS does not routinely estimate hourly earnings for non-hourly workers because of data concerns that arise in producing these estimates. For further information, see Steven Haugen and Earl Mellor, "Estimating the number of minimum wage workers," Monthly Labor Review, January 1990 (PDF 415K).
The prevailing Federal minimum wage was $2.90 in 1979, $3.10 in 1980, and $3.35 in 1981-89. The minimum wage rose to $3.80 in April 1990, $4.25 in April 1991, $4.75 in October 1996, and $5.15 in September 1997. On July 24, 2007, the Federal minimum wage increased to $5.85 per hour from $5.15 per hour. Data in this report reflect the average number of workers earning the prevailing Federal minimum wage or less for the year (those who earned $5.15 or less from January 2007 through July 2007 and those who earned $5.85 or less from August 2007 through the end of the year).
This release is available on our Web site at http://www.bls.gov/ro9/home.htm. If you have additional questions, you can contact the Western Information Office at 415-625-2270. Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 202-691-5200; TDD message referral phone number: 1-800-877-8339.
Table 1. Employed wage and salary workers paid hourly rates with earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage, by State, 2007 annual averages
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| Number of workers | | Percent of workers
| (in thousands) | Percent distribution | paid hourly rates
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| | At or below | | At or below | At or below
| | minimum Wage | | minimum Wage | minimum Wage
| Total|-----------------------| Total|-----------------------|------------------------
State | paid| | At | Below | paid| | At | Below | | At | Below
|hourly| |minimum|minimum|hourly| |minimum|minimum| |minimum |minimum
| rates| Total | wage | wage | rates| Total | Wage | Wage | Total | wage | wage
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Total, 16 years
and over...... 75,873 1729 267 1,462 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 2.3 0.4 1.9
Alabama....... 1,132 37 14 23 1.5 2.1 5.2 1.6 3.3 1.2 2.0
Alaska........ 197 2 - 2 0.3 0.1 - 0.1 1.0 - 1.0
Arizona....... 1,560 28 2 26 2.1 1.6 0.7 1.8 1.8 0.1 1.7
Arkansas...... 677 17 1 16 0.9 1.0 0.4 1.1 2.5 0.1 2.4
California.... 8,785 74 9 65 11.6 4.3 3.4 4.4 0.8 0.1 0.7
Colorado...... 1,164 25 1 24 1.5 1.4 0.4 1.6 2.1 0.1 2.1
Connecticut... 923 14 - 14 1.2 0.8 - 1.0 1.5 - 1.5
Delaware...... 234 5 - 5 0.3 0.3 - 0.3 2.1 - 2.1
District
of Columbia.. 109 3 1 2 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.1 2.8 0.9 1.8
Florida....... 4,261 114 15 99 5.6 6.6 5.6 6.8 2.7 0.4 2.3
Georgia....... 2,216 70 11 59 2.9 4.0 4.1 4.0 3.2 0.5 2.7
Hawaii........ 338 4 - 4 0.4 0.2 - 0.3 1.2 - 1.2
Idaho......... 424 12 4 8 0.6 0.7 1.5 0.5 2.8 0.9 1.9
Illinois...... 3,335 74 3 71 4.4 4.3 1.1 4.9 2.2 0.1 2.1
Indiana....... 1,826 36 7 29 2.4 2.1 2.6 2.0 2.0 0.4 1.6
Iowa.......... 933 24 2 22 1.2 1.4 0.7 1.5 2.6 0.2 2.4
Kansas........ 796 25 5 20 1.0 1.4 1.9 1.4 3.1 0.6 2.5
Kentucky...... 1,152 35 9 26 1.5 2.0 3.4 1.8 3.0 0.8 2.3
Louisiana..... 937 40 17 23 1.2 2.3 6.4 1.6 4.3 1.8 2.5
Maine......... 399 9 - 9 0.5 0.5 - 0.6 2.3 - 2.3
Maryland...... 1,317 27 2 25 1.7 1.6 0.7 1.7 2.1 0.2 1.9
Massachusetts. 1,505 60 2 58 2.0 3.5 0.7 4.0 4.0 0.1 3.9
Michigan...... 2,678 58 1 57 3.5 3.4 0.4 3.9 2.2 0.0 2.1
Minnesota..... 1,565 21 2 19 2.1 1.2 0.7 1.3 1.3 0.1 1.2
Mississippi... 691 31 16 15 0.9 1.8 6.0 1.0 4.5 2.3 2.2
Missouri...... 1,577 33 3 30 2.1 1.9 1.1 2.1 2.1 0.2 1.9
Montana....... 289 1 - 1 0.4 0.1 - 0.1 0.3 - 0.3
Nebraska...... 553 17 3 14 0.7 1.0 1.1 1.0 3.1 0.5 2.5
Nevada........ 747 12 3 9 1.0 0.7 1.1 0.6 1.6 0.4 1.2
New Hampshire. 372 9 1 8 0.5 0.5 0.4 0.5 2.4 0.3 2.2
New Jersey.... 1,697 29 4 25 2.2 1.7 1.5 1.7 1.7 0.2 1.5
New Mexico.... 479 11 2 9 0.6 0.6 0.7 0.6 2.3 0.4 1.9
New York...... 4,078 88 7 81 5.4 5.1 2.6 5.5 2.2 0.2 2.0
North Carolina 2,156 46 4 42 2.8 2.7 1.5 2.9 2.1 0.2 1.9
North Dakota.. 191 5 2 3 0.3 0.3 0.7 0.2 2.6 1.0 1.6
Ohio.......... 3,422 79 5 74 4.5 4.6 1.9 5.1 2.3 0.1 2.2
Oklahoma...... 849 25 10 15 1.1 1.4 3.7 1.0 2.9 1.2 1.8
Oregon........ 1,050 9 2 7 1.4 0.5 0.7 0.5 0.9 0.2 0.7
Pennsylvania.. 3,434 69 3 66 4.5 4.0 1.1 4.5 2.0 0.1 1.9
Rhode Island.. 315 7 - 7 0.4 0.4 - 0.5 2.2 - 2.2
South Carolina 1,178 47 10 37 1.6 2.7 3.7 2.5 4.0 0.8 3.1
South Dakota.. 241 6 1 5 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.3 2.5 0.4 2.1
Tennesee...... 1,602 39 10 29 2.1 2.3 3.7 2.0 2.4 0.6 1.8
Texas......... 5,585 221 46 175 7.4 12.8 17.2 12.0 4.0 0.8 3.1
Utah.......... 748 11 1 10 1.0 0.6 0.4 0.7 1.5 0.1 1.3
Vermont....... 181 4 - 4 0.2 0.2 - 0.3 2.2 - 2.2
Virginia...... 1,761 46 5 41 2.3 2.7 1.9 2.8 2.6 0.3 2.3
Washington.... 1,844 17 3 14 2.4 1.0 1.1 1.0 0.9 0.2 0.8
West Virginia. 478 16 9 7 0.6 0.9 3.4 0.5 3.3 1.9 1.5
Wisconsin..... 1,730 32 4 28 2.3 1.9 1.5 1.9 1.8 0.2 1.6
Wyoming....... 164 4 1 3 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.2 2.4 0.6 1.8
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NOTE: Data exclude all self-employed persons regardless of whether or not their businesses are
incorporated. Users are reminded that these data are based on a sample and are therefore subject to
sampling error; the degree of error may be quite large for less populous States. It is not possible
to clearly determine whether workers surveyed in the CPS are actually covered by the Fair Labor
Standards Act (FLSA) or by individual State minimum wage laws. Thus, some workers reported as
earning an hourly wage of $5.15 may not in fact be covered by Federal or State minimum wage laws.
At the same time, the presence of a sizable number of workers with wages below the prevailing Federal
minimum wage does not necessarily indicate violations of the FLSA or applicable State laws, because
there are numerous exclusions and exemptions to these minimum wage statutes. Dash indicates no data
or data that do not meet publication criteria.
Last Modified Date: September 3, 2008
