Southeast Information Office

For release: Wednesday, March 23, 2011
BLSInfoAtlanta@bls.gov
General Information: (404) 893-4222
Media Contact: (404) 893-4220

---

MINIMUM WAGE WORKERS IN GEORGIA – 2010

In 2010, 163,000 hour-paid workers in Georgia had earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. (See chart 1.) In the State, about 1.9 million workers were paid at hourly rates, representing 50.4 percent of all wage and salary workers(1). Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that workers paid at or below the Federal minimum wage accounted for 8.5 percent of these hourly-paid workers in Georgia(2). (See table 1.)

Chart 1. Employed wage and salary workers paid hourly rates with earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage in Georgia, annual averages, 2000-2010

 

According to the Current Population Survey (CPS) estimates for 2010, 72.9 million workers in the United States were paid at hourly rates, representing 58.8 percent of all wage and salary workers. Of those paid by the hour, 1.8 million earned exactly the prevailing Federal minimum wage and nearly another 2.5 million reported wages below the minimum. Together, these 4.4 million workers with wages at or below the Federal minimum made up 6.0 percent of all hourly-paid workers.

The number of Georgia workers with hourly pay at or below the Federal minimum rose by 22,000 in 2010, with men and women each registering increases of 12,000. The rates of increase for both men (25.0 percent) and women (13.2 percent) workers earning at or below the Federal minimum wage slowed in 2010 compared to their 2009 increases of 128.6 and 65.5 percent, respectively. In 2010, women had a higher percentage of workers earning the Federal minimum wage than men (10.5 percent compared to 6.5 percent). (See table A and chart 2.)

Chart 2. Percentage of employed wage and salary workers paid hourly rates with earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage in Georgia, by sex, annual averages, 2000-2010

 

Overall, Georgia wage and salary workers paid hourly rates(3) had median hourly earnings of $11.81 in 2010; nationally, the median was $12.50. The 2010 median hourly rates for men and women in Georgia were $13.06 and $10.73, respectively. (See table A.) For the United States as a whole, the median hourly rates were $13.76 for men and $11.83 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 Georgia, annual averages, 2000-2010

Year	Number of workers at or below Federal minimum wage (in thousands)			All hourly-paid workers
	Total	Below prevailing Federal minimum wage	At prevailing Federal minimum wage	Number of workers (in thousands)	Median earnings (in dollars)
Total
2000	76	54	22	2,099	9.69
2001	64	51	13	1,993	10.22
2002	51	48	3	1,959	10.63
2003	55	39	16	1,921	10.55
2004	39	32	7	2,022	11.21
2005	66	52	14	2,060	11.02
2006	55	50	5	2,127	11.24
2007	70	59	11	2,216	11.50
2008	76	63	13	2,084	12.12
2009	141	92	49	1,971	12.13
2010	163	78	85	1,912	11.81
Men
2000	31	23	8	1,060	10.15
2001	25	21	4	959	11.18
2002	13	12	1	969	11.75
2003	16	10	6	989	11.51
2004	8	6	2	1,074	11.95
2005	23	17	6	1,028	11.83
2006	17	16	1	1,064	11.93
2007	22	19	3	1,076	12.12
2008	21	15	6	1,010	13.16
2009	48	35	13	954	13.31
2010	60	27	33	929	13.06
Women
2000	45	31	14	1,039	8.87
2001	40	31	9	1,034	9.61
2002	38	36	2	990	9.81
2003	39	29	10	932	9.94
2004	31	26	5	948	10.33
2005	43	35	8	1,032	10.20
2006	38	34	4	1,063	10.43
2007	49	40	9	1,140	10.80
2008	55	48	7	1,075	11.21
2009	91	56	35	1,017	11.22
2010	103	51	52	984	10.73
Note: Data exclude all self-employed persons whether or not their businesses are incorporated. Data may not sum to totals due to rounding.

Among the States and the District of Columbia, Mississippi and Texas, at 9.5 percent each, had the highest proportion of hourly-paid workers earning at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage in 2010, followed by Alabama and West Virginia, at 9.3 percent each. Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee also had shares of at least 8.0 percent. The States with the lowest percentage of workers earning the Federal minimum wage or below included Alaska, Oregon, Washington, and California with shares at or below 2.0 percent. It should be noted that as of January 1, 2011, 17 States and the District of Columbia had laws establishing minimum wage standards that exceeded the Federal level of $7.25 per hour(4). (See table 1 and chart 3.)

Chart 3. Minimum wage laws in the States, January 1, 2011

 

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment Standards Administration, Wage and Hour Division.

Footnotes

(1) Data are for wage and salary workers age 16 and over and refer to earnings on a person’s sole or principal job. All self-employed persons are excluded whether or not their businesses are incorporated.

(2) 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.

(3) 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.

(4) U.S. Department of Labor, Employment Standards Administration, Wage and Hour Division: www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/america.htm.

Technical Note

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data on minimum wage 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. Additional information is available on the BLS Web site at www.bls.gov/cps/documentation.htm#pop.

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 on April 1, 1990, to $4.25 on April 1, 1991, to $4.75 on October 1, 1996, to $5.15 on September 1, 1997, to $5.85 on July 24, 2007, to $6.55 on July 24, 2008, and to $7.25 on July 24, 2009.

For personal assistance or further information on minimum wage data, as well as other Bureau data, contact the Southeast Information Office at 404-893-4222 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET. 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, 2010 annual averages

State	Number of workers (in thousands)				Percent distribution				Percent of workers paid hourly rates
	Total paid hourly rates	At or below minimum wage			Total paid hourly rates	At or below minimum wage			At or below minimum wage
		Total	At minimum wage	Below minimum wage		Total	At minimum wage	Below minimum wage	Total	At minimum wage	Below minimum wage
Total, 16 years and over	72,902	4,361	1,820	2,541	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	6.0	2.5	3.5
Alabama	1,141	106	59	47	1.6	2.4	3.2	1.8	9.3	5.2	4.1
Alaska	208	4	1	3	0.3	0.1	0.1	0.1	1.9	0.5	1.4
Arizona	1,492	83	38	45	2.0	1.9	2.1	1.8	5.6	2.5	3.0
Arkansas	705	56	32	24	1.0	1.3	1.8	0.9	7.9	4.5	3.4
California	8,619	174	55	119	11.8	4.0	3.0	4.7	2.0	0.6	1.4
Colorado	1,135	55	14	41	1.6	1.3	0.8	1.6	4.8	1.2	3.6
Connecticut	866	35	5	30	1.2	0.8	0.3	1.2	4.0	0.6	3.5
Delaware	203	14	6	8	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	6.9	3.0	3.9
District of Columbia	97	5	1	4	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2	5.2	1.0	4.1
Florida	3,778	253	100	153	5.2	5.8	5.5	6.0	6.7	2.6	4.0
Georgia	1,912	163	85	78	2.6	3.7	4.7	3.1	8.5	4.4	4.1
Hawaii	318	15	8	7	0.4	0.3	0.4	0.3	4.7	2.5	2.2
Idaho	396	30	15	15	0.5	0.7	0.8	0.6	7.6	3.8	3.8
Illinois	3,145	126	34	92	4.3	2.9	1.9	3.6	4.0	1.1	2.9
Indiana	1,610	126	60	66	2.2	2.9	3.3	2.6	7.8	3.7	4.1
Iowa	947	61	33	28	1.3	1.4	1.8	1.1	6.4	3.5	3.0
Kansas	771	59	30	29	1.1	1.4	1.6	1.1	7.7	3.9	3.8
Kentucky	1,119	91	43	48	1.5	2.1	2.4	1.9	8.1	3.8	4.3
Louisiana	981	87	29	58	1.3	2.0	1.6	2.3	8.9	3.0	5.9
Maine	369	14	3	11	0.5	0.3	0.2	0.4	3.8	0.8	3.0
Maryland	1,311	77	21	56	1.8	1.8	1.2	2.2	5.9	1.6	4.3
Massachusetts	1,519	45	10	35	2.1	1.0	0.5	1.4	3.0	0.7	2.3
Michigan	2,478	137	30	107	3.4	3.1	1.6	4.2	5.5	1.2	4.3
Minnesota	1,497	90	39	51	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.0	6.0	2.6	3.4
Mississippi	663	63	34	29	0.9	1.4	1.9	1.1	9.5	5.1	4.4
Missouri	1,531	123	55	68	2.1	2.8	3.0	2.7	8.0	3.6	4.4
Montana	255	17	12	5	0.3	0.4	0.7	0.2	6.7	4.7	2.0
Nebraska	536	30	17	13	0.7	0.7	0.9	0.5	5.6	3.2	2.4
Nevada	651	23	10	13	0.9	0.5	0.5	0.5	3.5	1.5	2.0
New Hampshire	356	19	5	14	0.5	0.4	0.3	0.6	5.3	1.4	3.9
New Jersey	1,612	113	31	82	2.2	2.6	1.7	3.2	7.0	1.9	5.1
New Mexico	476	26	6	20	0.7	0.6	0.3	0.8	5.5	1.3	4.2
New York	4,122	264	103	161	5.7	6.1	5.7	6.3	6.4	2.5	3.9
North Carolina	2,121	168	73	95	2.9	3.9	4.0	3.7	7.9	3.4	4.5
North Dakota	200	13	7	6	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.2	6.5	3.5	3.0
Ohio	3,185	172	49	123	4.4	3.9	2.7	4.8	5.4	1.5	3.9
Oklahoma	835	72	39	33	1.1	1.7	2.1	1.3	8.6	4.7	4.0
Oregon	994	16	6	10	1.4	0.4	0.3	0.4	1.6	0.6	1.0
Pennsylvania	3,255	206	91	115	4.5	4.7	5.0	4.5	6.3	2.8	3.5
Rhode Island	294	14	4	10	0.4	0.3	0.2	0.4	4.8	1.4	3.4
South Carolina	1,050	78	32	46	1.4	1.8	1.8	1.8	7.4	3.0	4.4
South Dakota	257	15	7	8	0.4	0.3	0.4	0.3	5.8	2.7	3.1
Tennessee	1,503	124	64	60	2.1	2.8	3.5	2.4	8.3	4.3	4.0
Texas	5,763	550	268	282	7.9	12.6	14.7	11.1	9.5	4.7	4.9
Utah	739	45	21	24	1.0	1.0	1.2	0.9	6.1	2.8	3.2
Vermont	184	6	1	5	0.3	0.1	0.1	0.2	3.3	0.5	2.7
Virginia	1,712	136	53	83	2.3	3.1	2.9	3.3	7.9	3.1	4.8
Washington	1,739	19	7	12	2.4	0.4	0.4	0.5	1.1	0.4	0.7
West Virginia	430	40	23	17	0.6	0.9	1.3	0.7	9.3	5.3	4.0
Wisconsin	1,657	91	44	47	2.3	2.1	2.4	1.8	5.5	2.7	2.8
Wyoming	163	12	6	6	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.2	7.4	3.7	3.7
NOTE: Data exclude all self-employed persons whether or not their businesses are incorporated. Users are reminded that 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. It is not possible to determine clearly 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 the prevailing Federal minimum wage may not in fact be covered by Federal or State minimum wage laws. Also, there are a number of states that have minimum wages that exceed the Federal minimum wage. 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.

 

Last Modified Date: April 8, 2011