Employers who pay workers a minimum wage will be forced to dig deeper into their pockets starting Thursday. The federal minimum wage goes up 70 cents an hour, to $6.55. The new rate — the second step in a three-year plan to raise required pay — will mean $262 for a 40-hour work week, or $13,624 a year.
Most workers aren't affected by the minimum wage these days. Only 2 percent of hourly earners are paid the federal minimum, compared to 15 percent of the workforce in 1981, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Even so, the bureau estimates that 1.73 million workers earned the federal minimum wage - or less - last year.
In some states, hourly workers who receive tips – such as food and hotel workers — are paid less than the hourly minimum wage. If their wages and tips don't add up to the federal minimum, employers must make up the difference.
-excerpt from NPR
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