Increasing Minimum Wage Promotes Fair Pay For Women, NWLC Says

Two out of three minimum wage workers are women

(Washington, D.C.)  Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Representative George Miller (D-CA) are expected to introduce the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013. The bills would raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10 per hour by 2015 and the minimum cash wage for tipped workers from $2.13 per hour to 70 percent of the regular minimum wage and index both wages to keep up with increases in the cost of living.

The following is a statement by Joan Entmacher, NWLC’s Vice President for Family Economic Security:

“The data reveal a stark reality: the minimum wage is a woman’s issue.  Women are two of every three adult minimum wage workers.  In the ten largest occupations that typically pay less than $10.10 an hour, women are a large majority of workers. This means that millions of women who care for our children and elders, clean our homes and offices, and prepare and serve our food are struggling to put food on their own tables and support their families.

“It is unacceptable that a woman working full time, year round at the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 earns just $14,500.  That leaves a single mother with two children nearly $4,000 below the poverty line, and the situation is even more dire for women who are working part-time because they cannot find full-time work.  Increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour in 2015 would boost a minimum wage worker’s annual earnings by $5,700 per year—enough to pull a family of three out of poverty.  Indexing the minimum wage to keep pace with inflation would help prevent these gains from being erased as the cost of living rises.

“It’s also time to focus on tipped workers, for whom the minimum cash wage has been frozen at just $2.13 per hour for more than 20 years.  Seventy percent of restaurant servers—the largest group of tipped employees—are women.  By gradually raising the tipped minimum wage to 70 percent of the regular minimum wage, this bill recognizes that tipped workers must no longer be left behind.

“Increasing pay for the lowest-paid, overwhelmingly female workforce also will help narrow the persistent gender wage gap.  Women working full time, year round are paid only 77 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts, and the gap is even wider for women of color.

“It is shameful that Congress has raised the minimum wage only three times in the past 30 years.  Women and their families cannot afford to wait any longer.  In a country that prides itself on making the American dream accessible to everyone, isn’t it past time to give all workers a livable wage?  We urge Congress to pass the Fair Minimum Wage Act now.”

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