Marital status

U.S. Department of Labor
Bureau of Labor Statistics

Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2002

According to Current Population Survey estimates for 2002, some 72.7 million American workers were paid at hourly rates, representing 59.6 percent of all wage and salary workers.1 Of those paid by the hour, about 570,000 were reported earning exactly $5.15, the prevailing Federal minimum wage, and another 1.6 million were reported with wages below the minimum.2 Together, these 2.2 million workers with wages at or below the minimum made up 3.0 percent of all hourly-paid workers.

The following are some highlights from the 2002 data.

· Minimum wage workers tend to be young. About half of workers earning $5.15 or less were under age 25, and slightly more than one-fourth were age 16-19.

· Never- married workers, who also tend to be quite young, are more likely to earn the minimum wage or less than persons who are married. (See table 8.)

Table 8. Employed wage and salary workers paid hourly rates with earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage by marital status, age, and sex, 2002 annual averages
Marital status, age and sex	Number of workers (in thousands)				Percent distribution				Percent of workers paid hourly rates
	Total paid hourly rates	At or below $5.15			Total paid hourly rates	At or below $5.15			At or below $5.15
	Total paid hourly rates	Total	At $5.15	Below $5.15	Total paid hourly rates	Total	At $5.15	Below $5.15	Total	At $5.15	Below $5.15
BOTH SEXES
Total, 16 years and over	72,720	2,168	570	1,598	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	3.0	0.8	2.2
Never married	24,983	1,366	380	986	34.4	63.0	66.7	61.7	5.5	1.5	3.9
16 to 24 years	14,167	1,074	319	755	19.5	49.5	56.0	47.2	7.6	2.3	5.3
25 years and over	10,815	292	61	231	14.9	13.5	10.7	14.5	2.7	0.6	2.1
25 to 54 years	10,340	277	57	220	14.2	12.8	10.0	13.8	2.7	0.6	2.1
Married, spouse present	35,558	496	108	388	48.9	22.9	18.9	24.3	1.4	0.3	1.1
16 to 24 years	1,623	54	13	41	2.2	2.5	2.3	2.6	3.3	0.8	2.5
25 years and over	33,935	442	95	347	46.7	20.4	16.7	21.7	1.3	0.3	1.0
25 to 54 years	28,242	341	69	272	38.8	15.7	12.1	17.0	1.2	0.2	1.0
Other marital status	12,179	306	82	224	16.7	14.1	14.4	14.0	2.5	0.7	1.8
16 to 24 years	400	30	8	22	0.6	1.4	1.4	1.4	7.5	2.0	5.5
25 years and over	11,778	277	74	203	16.2	12.8	13.0	12.7	2.4	0.6	1.7
25 to 54 years	9,116	187	45	142	12.5	8.6	7.9	8.9	2.1	0.5	1.6
MEN
Total, 16 years and over	36,135	800	218	582	49.7	36.9	38.2	36.4	2.2	0.6	1.6
Never married	13,393	571	163	408	18.4	26.3	28.6	25.5	4.3	1.2	3.0
16 to 24 years	7,365	431	139	292	10.1	19.9	24.4	18.3	5.9	1.9	4.0
25 years and over	6,027	141	24	117	8.3	6.5	4.2	7.3	2.3	0.4	1.9
25 to 54 years	5,817	134	23	111	8.0	6.2	4.0	6.9	2.3	0.4	1.9
Married, spouse present	18,107	159	35	124	24.9	7.3	6.1	7.8	0.9	0.2	0.7
16 to 24 years	721	13	4	9	1.0	0.6	0.7	0.6	1.8	0.6	1.2
25 years and over	17,386	146	31	115	23.9	6.7	5.4	7.2	0.8	0.2	0.7
25 to 54 years	14,248	101	21	80	19.6	4.7	3.7	5.0	0.7	0.1	0.6
Other marital status	4,635	70	20	50	6.4	3.2	3.5	3.1	1.5	0.4	1.1
16 to 24 years	155	9	3	6	0.2	0.4	0.5	0.4	5.8	1.9	3.9
25 years and over	4,479	60	17	43	6.2	2.8	3.0	2.7	1.3	0.4	1.0
25 to 54 years	3,730	45	11	34	5.1	2.1	1.9	2.1	1.2	0.3	0.9
WOMEN
Total, 16 years and over	36,585	1,368	352	1,016	50.3	63.1	61.8	63.6	3.7	1.0	2.8
Never married	11,590	794	217	577	15.9	36.6	38.1	36.1	6.9	1.9	5.0
16 to 24 years	6,802	644	180	464	9.4	29.7	31.6	29.0	9.5	2.6	6.8
25 years and over	4,788	151	37	114	6.6	7.0	6.5	7.1	3.2	0.8	2.4
25 to 54 years	4,523	142	34	108	6.2	6.5	6.0	6.8	3.1	0.8	2.4
Married, spouse present	17,451	338	74	264	24.0	15.6	13.0	16.5	1.9	0.4	1.5
16 to 24 years	902	41	9	32	1.2	1.9	1.6	2.0	4.5	1.0	3.5
25 years and over	16,549	296	64	232	22.8	13.7	11.2	14.5	1.8	0.4	1.4
25 to 54 years	13,994	240	48	192	19.2	11.1	8.4	12.0	1.7	0.3	1.4
Other marital status	7,544	237	62	175	10.4	10.9	10.9	11.0	3.1	0.8	2.3
16 to 24 years	245	20	5	15	0.3	0.9	0.9	0.9	8.2	2.0	6.1
25 years and over	7,299	216	57	159	10.0	10.0	10.0	9.9	3.0	0.8	2.2
25 to 54 years	5,386	143	35	108	7.4	6.6	6.1	6.8	2.7	0.6	2.0

NOTE: Data exclude the incorporated self-employed.