One-fourth of Michigan's workforce makes less than $17 per hour
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One-fourth of Michigan's workforce make less than $17 per hour — 29% of women and 35% of Black workers in Michigan fall below that line, new data from Oxfam shows.
The big picture: Just 13% of U.S. workers earn less than $15 an hour. Two years ago, that number was 31.9%, according to Oxfam, a British organization aimed at eliminating global poverty.
Why it matters: Even accounting for inflation — $15 an hour in 2024 has the same buying power as about $14 in 2022 — this is remarkable progress.
- It is meaningful for the millions of Americans who need (and typically spend) every additional dollar they earn.
Zoom in: In Michigan, 1,218,202 workers make less than $17 per hour. Of those, 22.7% are white, 35% are Black, 34.8% are Hispanic and 18.8% are Asian American and American Indian.
- More than 24% of Michigan workers make less than $17 per hour, slightly above the national average of 23%.
Catch up quick: Wages are higher now in part because of inflation and a strong labor market where lower-wage employees are still in high demand.
- But it's also due to the work of advocates who pushed for minimum wage increases for more than a decade. Pandemic-era benefits helped these workers be more choosy about finding better-paying jobs coming out of the record unemployment of 2020.
- "Because people had more money, they were able to hold out for higher-paying positions," says Kaitlyn Henderson, a senior researcher at Oxfam, who wrote the report.
Zoom out: Oxfam revised its definition of a low-wage worker this year, from those earning less than $15 an hour to those earning less than $17. Fewer than 1 in 4 workers in the U.S. now fall into that category, the group says.
- That's more than 39 million people, including 34 million who are older than 20, according to the report. (In 2022, many more workers — 52 million — earned less than $15 an hour.)