The federally mandated minimum wage in the United States is 7.25 U.S. dollars per hour, although the minimum wage varies from state to state. As of January 1, 2024, the District of Columbia had the highest minimum wage in the U.S., at 17 U.S. dollars per hour. This was followed by Washington, which had 16.28 U.S. dollars per hour as the state minimum wage.

Minimum wage workers

Minimum wage jobs are traditionally seen as “starter jobs” in the U.S., or first jobs for teenagers and young adults, and the number of people working minimum wage jobs has decreased from almost four million in 1979 to about 247,000 in 2020. However, the number of workers earning less than minimum wage in 2020 was significantly higher, at about 865,000.

Minimum wage jobs

Minimum wage jobs are primarily found in food preparation and serving occupations, as well as sales jobs (primarily in retail). Because the minimum wage has not kept up with inflation, nor has it been increased since 2009, it is becoming harder and harder live off of a minimum wage wage job, and for those workers to afford essential things like rent.

In 2023, the average wage in private industry in Alabama was at 58,993 U.S. dollars. This was nearly half of the annual average wages per employee in the District of Columbia, at 112,048 U.S. dollars. That year, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, and New York were the top ranked states in terms of average wages per employee.

Graph and download economic data for Employment Cost Index: Wages and Salaries: State and Local Government: All Workers (ECIGVTWAG) from Q1 2001 to Q4 2024 about state & local, ECI, salaries, workers, wages, government, inflation, and USA.

This feature service contains employment and wage data for detailed farming, fishing, and forestry occupations by nation, state, and metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. Data from Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) Occupation Employment Statistics (OES) series. Data vintage: May 2018.Boundary files came from U.S. Census Bureau's 2018 Cartographic Boundary Files. Nonmetropolitan areas were constructed based on BLS' May 2018 Area Definitions.A few Frequently Asked Questions from BLS' OES FAQ site:How are "employees" defined by the OES Survey? "Employees" are all part-time and full-time workers who are paid a wage or salary. The survey does not cover the self-employed, owners and partners in unincorporated firms, household workers, or unpaid family workers.Do OES wage estimates include benefits? No. OES wage estimates represent wages and salaries only, and do not include nonproduction bonuses or employer costs of nonwage benefits, such as health insurance or employer contributions to retirement plans. Information on cost of benefits, benefit incidence, and detailed plan provisions is available from the National Compensation Survey program.Why does the sum of the areas within a state not equal the statewide employment? The sum of the areas may differ from statewide employment for several reasons:RoundingThe totals include data items that are not released separately due to confidentiality and quality reasons.Many States include metropolitan areas that cross State lines. These cross-State metropolitan area estimates include data from each State, which should not be included in a total for a single State.A small number of establishments indicate the State in which their employees are located, but do not indicate the specific metropolitan or nonmetropolitan area in which they are located. Data for these establishments are used in the calculation of the statewide estimates, but are not included in the estimates of any individual area.Why don't the major group or "all occupations" employment totals equal the sum of the employment estimates for the detailed occupations? The major group and "all occupations" totals may include detailed occupations for which separate employment estimates could not be published. As a result, employment totals at the major group and "all occupations" levels may be greater than the sum of employment estimates for the detailed occupations. Because the major group employment totals include employment for the detailed occupations in that group, summing across both detailed occupations and major groups will result in double counting of occupational employment.

In 2023, the average wage and salary per full-time equivalent employee in the mining industry in the United States was at 126,707 U.S. dollars. The highest wage and salary per FTE was found in the information industry, at 164,400 U.S. dollars.

The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) Program is a Federal-State cooperative program between the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the California EDD’s Labor Market Information Division (LMID). The QCEW program produces a comprehensive tabulation of employment and wage information for workers covered by California Unemployment Insurance (UI) laws and Federal workers covered by the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) program.

The QCEW program serves as a near census of monthly employment and quarterly wage information by 6-digit industry codes from the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) at the national, state, and county levels. At the national level, the QCEW program publishes employment and wage data for nearly every NAICS industry. At the state and local area level, the QCEW program publishes employment and wage data down to the 6-digit NAICS industry level, if disclosure restrictions are met. In accordance with the BLS policy, data provided to the Bureau in confidence are used only for specified statistical purposes and are not published. The BLS withholds publication of Unemployment Insurance law-covered employment and wage data for any industry level when necessary to protect the identity of cooperating employers.

Data from the QCEW program serve as an important input to many BLS programs. The Current Employment Statistics and the Occupational Employment Statistics programs use the QCEW data as the benchmark source for employment. The UI administrative records collected under the QCEW program serve as a sampling frame for the BLS establishment surveys.

In addition, the data serve as an input to other federal and state programs. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of the Department of Commerce uses the QCEW data as the base for developing the wage and salary component of personal income.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and California's EDD use the QCEW data to administer the Unemployment Insurance program. The QCEW data accurately reflect the extent of coverage of California’s UI laws and are used to measure UI revenues; national, state and local area employment; and total and UI taxable wage trends.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes new QCEW data in its County Employment and Wages news release on a quarterly basis. The BLS also publishes a subset of its quarterly data through the Create Customized Tables system, and full quarterly industry detail data at all geographic levels.

Graph and download economic data for Employment Cost Index: Wages and salaries for State and local government workers in Schools (CIS3026105000000I) from Q1 2003 to Q4 2024 about schools, state & local, ECI, salaries, workers, wages, government, and USA.

This is a multi-year state agency salary report. To learn more about state salaries visit the Oregon Transparency Program website. https://www.oregon.gov/transparency/Pages/index.aspx. To learn more about state jobs and salaries visit https://www.oregon.gov/das/hr/pages/index.aspx.

United States - Employment Cost Index: Wages and salaries for State and local government workers in Office and administrative support was 161.90000 Index: Dec 2005=100 in October of 2024, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Employment Cost Index: Wages and salaries for State and local government workers in Office and administrative support reached a record high of 161.90000 in October of 2024 and a record low of 87.40000 in January of 2001. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Employment Cost Index: Wages and salaries for State and local government workers in Office and administrative support - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on March of 2025.

Graph and download economic data for Employment Cost Index: Wages and salaries for State and local government workers in Public administration (CIU3029200000000I) from Q1 2001 to Q4 2024 about administrative, state & local, ECI, public, salaries, workers, wages, government, and USA.

This statistic displays the average annual salary of laborers in selected Mexican states as of October 2018 (in Mexican pesos). Among the surveyed states, the state of Nuevo León presented the highest average salary for general laborers or workers, with about 66,288 Mexican pesos a year, followed by Jalisco with 59,376 pesos.

In 2023, the median hourly earnings of wage and salary workers in the United States was 19.24 U.S. dollars. This is an increase from 1979, when median hourly earnings were at 4.44 U.S. dollars. Hourly Workers The United States national minimum wage is 7.25 U.S. dollars per hour, which has been the minimum wage since 2009. However, each state has the agency to set their state minimum wage. Furthermore, some cities are able to create their minimum wage. Many argue that the minimum wage is too low and should be raised, because it is not considered a living wage. There has been a movement to raise the minimum wage to 15 U.S. dollars per hour, called “Fight for 15” which began in the early 2010s. While there has been no movement at the federal level, some states have moved to increase their minimum wages, with at least three states and the District of Columbia setting minimum wage rates at or above 15 dollars per hour. More recently, some proponents of increasing the minimum wage say that 15 dollars is too low, and lawmakers should strive toward a higher goal, especially given that a 2021 analysis found that the minimum wage in the U.S. should be 22.88 U.S. dollars if it grew at the same rate as economic productivity. Salary Workers On the other hand, salary workers in the United States do not get paid on an hourly basis. The median weekly earnings of salary workers have significantly increased since 1979. Asian salary workers had the highest hourly earnings in the U.S. in 2021. Among female salary workers, those ages 45 to 54 years old had the highest median hourly earnings in 2021, likewise for male salary workers.

The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program publishes a quarterly count of employment and wages reported by employers covering 98 percent of U.S. jobs, available at the county, MSA, state and national levels by industry.

More information and details about the data provided can be found at http://www.bls.gov/cew

Washington State, metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) and nonmetropolitan areas (NMA), 2020 OEWS is a program of the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This federal-state cooperative program produces employment and wage estimates for nearly 867 occupations. The occupational employment and wage estimates are based on data collected from the OEWS survey. The survey includes employment counts, occupations and wages from more than 4,200 Washington state employers. Data from six survey panels are combined to create a sample size of more than 26,400 employers. Blanks in the data columns indicate suppressed data.

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Survey collects data from a sample of establishments and calculates employment and wage estimates by occupation, industry, and geographic area. The semiannual survey covers all non-farm industries. Data are collected by the Employment Development Department in cooperation with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor. The OEWS Program estimates employment and wages for over 800 occupations from an annual sample of approx. 34,000 California employers. It also produces employment and wage estimates for statewide, Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), and Balance of State areas. Estimates are a snapshot in time and should not be used as a time series.

Graph and download economic data for Employment Level - Nonagriculture, Government Wage and Salary Workers (LNS12032188) from Jan 1948 to Feb 2025 about nonagriculture, salaries, workers, 16 years +, wages, household survey, government, employment, and USA.

United States - Employment Cost Index: Wages and salaries for State and local government workers in Education services was 154.60000 Index: Dec 2005=100 in October of 2024, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Employment Cost Index: Wages and salaries for State and local government workers in Education services reached a record high of 154.60000 in October of 2024 and a record low of 93.60000 in January of 2003. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Employment Cost Index: Wages and salaries for State and local government workers in Education services - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on March of 2025.

Data on health care employment and wages in the United States, by selected occupations. Data are from Health, United States. Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. Search, visualize, and download these and other estimates from over 120 health topics with the NCHS Data Query System (DQS), available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/dataquery/index.htm.

This dataset provides annual personal income estimates for State of Iowa produced by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis beginning in 1997. Data includes the following estimates: personal income, per capita personal income, wages and salaries, supplements to wages and salaries, private nonfarm earnings, compensation of employees, average compensation per job, and private nonfarm compensation. Personal income is defined as the sum of wages and salaries, supplements to wages and salaries, proprietors’ income, dividends, interest, and rent, and personal current transfer receipts, less contributions for government social insurance. Personal income for Iowa is the income received by, or on behalf of all persons residing in Iowa, regardless of the duration of residence, except for foreign nationals employed by their home governments in Iowa. Per capita personal income is personal income divided by the Census Bureau’s annual midyear (July 1) population estimates. Wages and salaries is defined as the remuneration receivable by employees (including corporate officers) from employers for the provision of labor services. It includes commissions, tips, and bonuses; employee gains from exercising stock options; and pay-in-kind. Judicial fees paid to jurors and witnesses are classified as wages and salaries. Wages and salaries are measured before deductions, such as social security contributions, union dues, and voluntary employee contributions to defined contribution pension plans. Supplements to wages and salaries consists of employer contributions for government social insurance and employer contributions for employee pension and insurance funds. Private nonfarm earnings is the sum of wages and salaries, supplements to wages and salaries, and nonfarm proprietors' income, excluding farm and government. Compensation to employees is the total remuneration, both monetary and in kind, payable by employers to employees in return for their work during the period. It consists of wages and salaries and of supplements to wages and salaries. Compensation is presented on an accrual basis - that is, it reflects compensation liabilities incurred by the employer in a given period regardless of when the compensation is actually received by the employee. Average compensation per job is compensation of employees divided by total full-time and part-time wage and salary employment. Private nonfarm compensation is the sum of wages and salaries and supplements to wages and salaries, excluding farm and government. More terms and definitions are available on https://apps.bea.gov/regional/definitions/.

In 2023, the Rhode Island had the highest earnings ratio for women, as female workers earned 89.05 percent of their male counterparts on average. The state of Louisiana had the lowest earnings ratio for female workers, who earned 71.03 percent of what their male counterparts earn.