# What pct. of US people actually earn the minimum wage?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pct-of-us-people-actually-earn-the-minimum-wage/650425>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [February 15, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pct-of-us-people-actually-earn-the-minimum-wage/650425 "2013-02-15T19:49:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pct-of-us-people-actually-earn-the-minimum-wage/650425/21 "2013-02-17T00:31:38Z")

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> [@Honesty](#):
>
> I agree with you. However, I do fascinating that we spent a half-decade arguing whether the tax rates for less than 1% of the population should go up to 4%; yet, the very idea of whether 3-5% of the population should receive what amounts to earn $1.25 more an hour is unconscionable.

Those are both things that Congress, especially the Republicans, are out of step with. There is large, popular support for raising taxes on the wealthy and for raising the MW. But it doesn’t appear that people feel passionately about those issue to make much of an impact on the electoral process.

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**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pct-of-us-people-actually-earn-the-minimum-wage/650425/22 "2013-02-18T21:12:59Z")

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If so few people are making minimum or near minimum wage then raising the minimum wage should be no big deal.

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**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pct-of-us-people-actually-earn-the-minimum-wage/650425/23 "2013-02-18T21:50:55Z")

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It’s a big deal for ideological reasons because captains of industry are the only ones who have “earned” their wages. Minimum wages shackle the captains of industry with having to drag along the people who don’t produce, geddit?

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