The state of Missouri’s minimum wage rate increased January 1, 2017, from $7.65 per hour to $7.70 per hour. The minimum wage rate had remained at $7.65 per hour for 2015 and 2016. On a forty hour work week, this is an additional $24 per month. Missouri is one of 19 states that raised the minimum wage on New Year’s Day. A Missouri law passed in 2006 requires the increase, which puts the minimum wage rate in Missouri higher than the Federal minimum wage rate. The minimum wage for tipped workers in Missouri raised 9 cents to $3.83 cents per hour.

Minimum Wage Rate Study

In April, 2016, the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics published a study on minimum wage jobs in the United States for 2015. The following are highlights from the 2015 data:

Age. Minimum wage workers tend to be young. Although workers under age 25 represented only about one-fifth of
hourly paid workers, they made up about half of those paid the federal minimum wage or less. Among employed teenagers (ages 16 to 19) paid by the hour, about 11 percent earned the minimum wage or less, compared with about 2 percent of workers age 25 and older.
Gender. Among workers who were paid hourly rates in 2015, about 4 percent of women and about 3 percent of men had wages at or below the prevailing federal minimum.
Race and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity. The major race and ethnicity groups had similar percentages of hourly workers paid wages at or below the federal minimum. About 3 percent of White, Asian, and Hispanic or Latino workers earned the federal minimum wage or less. Among Black workers, the percentage was about 4 percent.
Education. Among hourly paid workers age 16 and older, about 6 percent of those without a high school diploma earned the federal minimum wage or less, compared with about 3 percent of those who had a high school diploma (with no college), 3 percent of those with some college or an associate degree, and about 2 percent of college graduates.
Marital status. Of those paid an hourly wage, never-married workers, who tend to be young, were more likely (5 percent) than married workers (2 percent) to earn the federal minimum wage or less.
Full- and part-time status. About 7 percent of part-time workers (those who usually work fewer than 35 hours per week) were paid at or below the federal minimum wage, compared with about 2 percent of full-time workers.
Occupation. Among major occupational groups, the highest percentage of hourly paid workers earning at or below the federal minimum wage was in service occupations, at about 9 percent. Almost two-thirds of workers earning the minimum wage or less in 2015 were employed in service occupations, mostly in food preparation and serving related
jobs.
Industry. The industry with the highest percentage of workers earning hourly wages at or below the federal minimum wage was leisure and hospitality (15 percent). Nearly three-fifths of all workers paid at or below the federal minimum wage were employed in this industry, the vast majority in restaurants and other food services. For many of these
workers, tips may supplement the hourly wages received.
State of residence. The states with the highest percentages of hourly paid workers earning at or below the federal minimum wage were in the South: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Virginia (all were about 6 percent). The states with the lowest percentages of hourly paid workers earning at or below the federal minimum wage were in the West: Alaska, California, Oregon, and Washington (all were about 1 percent).

Business Law Lawyers

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