In 2024, about 82,000 U.S. workers age 16 and over earned exactly the prevailing federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Another 760,000 had wages below the federal minimum. Together these workers make up 1.0% of all hourly paid workers.

The proportion of hourly workers paid minimum wage or less is far below the level of 13% in 1979 when data was first collected on a regular basis and somewhat lower than recent years.

What were the characteristics of hourly workers paid at or below minimum wage in 2024?

Age

Nearly 43% were under age 25, although this age group accounted for about 20% of all hourly paid workers. Among employed teenagers (ages 16 to 19) paid by the hour, 2.6% earned minimum wage or less, nearly four times the rate for workers age 25 and older (0.7%).

Sex

1.3% of women and 0.8% of men who were paid by the hour had wages at or below the prevailing federal minimum.

Race and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity

The percentage of hourly paid workers with wages at or below the federal minimum differed little among the major race and ethnicity groups; for White, Black, Asian, and Hispanic workers the share was roughly 1.0% in each group.

Education

Among hourly paid workers age 16 and older, 1.5% of those without a high school diploma earned the federal minimum wage or less, compared with about 1.0% of those who were high school graduates or had higher education.

Marital Status

Among never-married workers—who are younger on average—1.5% of those paid hourly had wages at or below the federal minimum wage, compared with 0.7% for married workers and 0.7% for widowed/divorced/separated workers.

Full- and Part-Time Status

2.4% of part-time workers (usually working fewer than 35 hours per week) were paid the federal minimum wage or less, which is four times higher than the rate for full-time workers (0.6%).

Occupation

Among the major occupational groups, service occupations had the highest percentage of hourly paid workers earning at or below the federal minimum wage, at 3.2%. Nearly three-quarters of workers earning the minimum wage or less in 2024 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 (5.6%). About two-thirds of all minimum wage or less workers were employed in this industry, almost entirely in restaurants and other food services.

State of Residence

Among hourly paid workers in Louisiana and South Carolina, the share who earned the federal minimum wage or less was at or slightly above 2.0%. In many states (including Alaska, California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, and others), less than 1.0% of hourly paid workers earned at or below the federal minimum wage in 2024; note that 30 states and the District of Columbia had minimum wages that exceeded the federal minimum as of 2024.

Updated 12/18/25

For more information:

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2024. Accessed 12/18/25.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2023. Accessed 12/18/25.