Forget the minimum wage. Check out the median (Part II)

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Yesterday I made an argument for ignoring the debate around the minimum wage. I said the number we should really care about is the median wage of workers paid by the hour. That figure, for the 75.9 million Americans paid hourly rates, is $11.95. (The mean is higher—$14.25—but the Bureau of Labor Statistics thinks the median is a better measure since the distribution of wages is skewed.)

That post got a number of comments. Let me try to tackle some of them here. First, in response to Ffred, here’s the distribution for 2007:

under $3.00…………………606,000

$3.00-$3.49…………………211,000
$3.50-$3.99…………………109,000
$4.00-$4.49…………………102,000
$4.50-$4.99…………………..49,000
$5.00-$5.49…………………564,000
$5.50-$5.99…………………498,000
$6.00-$6.99………………3,045,000
$7.00-$7.99………………6,400,000
$8.00-$8.99……………….7,157,000
$9.00-$9.99………………5,803,000
$10.00-$11.99…………..12,296,000
$12.00-$14.99…………..12,717,000
$15.00-$19.99………….12,525,000
$20.00 or more………..13,789,000

A very nice economist at the BLS tracked that down for me. I’m not sure why the groups of wages get broader as you go along. But that’s the data as detailed as I’ve got it.

In response to MBirchmeier: Of the 75.9 million hourly-waged Americans, 57.7 million, or 76%, are working full-time. In that group, 55% are men and 45% are women. Among part-time workers, 32% are men and 68% are women.

And for rrsafety, here is the breakdown by age. (Unfortunately, it appears the BLS doesn’t have data specifically cross-referencing the wage a person makes and how many kids he or she supports.)

16 to 19 years………………..5,434,000

20 to 24 years……………….10,841,000
25 to 29 years………………..9,238,000
30 to 34 years………………..7,674,000
35 to 39 years………………..7,800,000
40 to 44 years………………..8,226,000
45 to 49 years………………..8,366,000
50 to 54 years………………..7,186,000
55 to 59 years………………..5,416,000
60 to 64 years………………..3,197,000
65 to 69 years………………..1,378,000
70 years and over…………..1,118,000

Barbara!