July 07, 2006 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Service jobs most likely to pay minimum wage

The share of hourly workers reporting earnings at or below the Federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour in 2005 ranged from less than 1 percent of workers in management, professional, and related occupations and in natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations to about 8 percent of service workers.

[Chart data—TXT]

Within the service occupations, about 17 percent of food preparation and serving related workers had earnings at or below $5.15 per hour. 

About three in four workers earning $5.15 or less in 2005 were employed in service occupations, mostly in food preparation and serving jobs. 

These data are derived from the Current Population Survey. To learn more about workers paid at or below the minimum wage, see Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2005. It should be noted that the presence of workers with wages below the minimum does not necessarily indicate violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, as there are exemptions, such as tip credits, to the minimum wage provision of the law.