When it comes to raising the minimum wage, most of the action is in cities and states, not Congress
The $7.25 federal minimum wage is used in just 21 states, which collectively account for about 40% of all U.S. wage and salary workers.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
The $7.25 federal minimum wage is used in just 21 states, which collectively account for about 40% of all U.S. wage and salary workers.
While women are still underrepresented in top corporate jobs, there has been a small increase in the share of women executives in such positions over the past decade.
The cost of living can vary widely not just from state to state but within individual states, which can make setting an appropriate minimum wage more difficult.
Technological change already has reshaped the U.S. workforce — creating new job categories while others fade away.
U.S. employment has become more concentrated in the largest occupational categories, and well-paying jobs account for a smaller share of those large categories than they did a decade or so ago.
Much has changed for African-Americans since the 1963 March on Washington (which, recall, was a march for “Jobs and Freedom”), but one thing hasn’t: The unemployment rate among blacks is still about double that among whites, as it has been for most of the past six decades.
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