Minimum Wage Workers by Education

Reading this table

The rows count wage and salary workers paid hourly rates: people aged 16 and over who report being paid by the hour at their main job in the Current Population Survey, about 58 percent of all wage and salary workers; salaried workers and the self-employed are outside the table. At minimum wage means an hourly rate exactly equal to the prevailing federal minimum, $7.25 since July 2009; below means a lower reported rate, which may be lawful (tipped work, full-time students, workers under 20 in their first 90 days, jobs outside FLSA coverage) or rounding in the answer; the report does not separate the reasons. Rates are before tips, overtime and commissions. Number of workers is in thousands; percent distribution is each row's share of the national total in that column; percentage of workers paid hourly rates is the share of the row's own hourly workers at or below the minimum. A state minimum above $7.25 is not counted; the minimum-wage pages give each rate. 2024 annual averages.

Educational attainment is the highest level completed, as the respondent reports it; the two top-level rows (less than a high school diploma; high school graduates or more) split the total, and the indented rows split each of them, with the college rows further split under "Some college or associate degree" and "Bachelor's degree and higher". Because the table covers workers aged 16 and over, the lower education rows include many teenagers still in school, who are also the group most often paid the minimum; the age page shows that overlap directly. The weekly earnings by education page gives the full earnings distribution for workers 25 and over.