Suburban Teens Get Minimum Wage Raise

Liberals like to say that the minimum wage is too low for a person to raise a family on. It's true and it will always be true. The increase in the minimum wage on 7/24 won't change that. The good news is that myth of millions of Americans supporting families of four with just one minimum wage-earner is a big lie. The truth is that the overwhelming majority of minimum wage-earners are single, they work only part-time and they live in households with total incomes substantially above the poverty line.

As the politicians trumpet their victory in raising the wage, you won't hear them tell you that 53% of the affected workers are teenagers and college age adults. There will be no mention that they live at home where the median family income is over $64,000 a year. You won't hear them point out that many are food servers and others who work for tips, which are usually more than the hourly wages.

The workers over age 24 aren't doing too badly either. The vast majority live in households above the poverty line and the minimum wage earner has usually chosen to work only part time. In fact, only 6.1% fit the stereotype of being a single parent working full-time.

These statistics don't show the length of time that people are working for minimum wage before they get their first earned raise or move on to a different, higher paying job. Of course, if you were to believe the Democrats, the same people have been working at the same job, for the same pay, for the 10 years since the last increase in the minimum wage law. That's just ludicrous.

Still, there are a few people who are working at low paying jobs for long periods of time. If the government were serious about helping them it would study what factors are preventing these people from having or being able to act upon their ambition. A .70¢ an hour increase isn't going to fix that kind of problem.

So after reading the news you may have felt that a lot of poor people were going to have a better life after today, Well, the real truth is that some kids in high school out in the 'burbs are going to be able to buy an extra CD next week.

See the statistics reported in more detail in this report from the Heritage Foundation.