My thoughts today are with all of the working women (and it is mostly women) who got a raise today when the federal minimum wage increased to $7.25.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make up more than two-thirds (67.8%) of hourly workers paid the minimum wage, even though nearly the same number of women and men work in jobs paid hourly rates.
This increase is undoubtedly a welcome help to many low-income, women-headed families in our region. While it only adds up to $112 per month (pre-tax), for someone working full time, it is more than a 10% increase over the previous minimum wage of $6.55.
Still, much remains to be done to improve the economic security of low-income, women-headed families, including further attention to the minimum wage. Even with this increase, today’s workers are still behind, compared to 20 years ago, when the minimum wage was $2.90 – which is $8.62 in 2009 dollars.
Gwen Rubinstein is a Program Officer at The Women’s Foundation.
