Minimum Wage Workers in Massachusetts – 2012 : Northeast Information Office : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

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Minimum Wage Workers in Massachusetts – 2012

Table 1. Employed wage and salary workers paid hourly rates with earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage and median hourly earnings of all hourly-paid workers in Massachusetts, by sex, annual averages, 2001-2012
Year	Number of workers at or below Federal minimum wage (in thousands)			All hourly-paid workers
Year	Total	Below prevailing Federal minimum wage	At prevailing Federal minimum wage	Number of workers (in thousands)	Median earnings (in dollars)
Total
2001	28	25	3	1,679	$11.15
2002	39	35	4	1,674	11.42
2003	37	33	4	1,661	11.95
2004	43	35	8	1,679	12.09
2005	31	27	4	1,666	12.58
2006	35	34	1	1,619	12.79
2007	60	58	2	1,505	12.45
2008	35	33	2	1,543	14.10
2009	60	50	10	1,527	14.69
2010	45	35	10	1,519	14.25
2011	60	49	11	1,539	14.00
2012	62	45	17	1,567	14.05
Men
2001	12	10	2	815	$12.64
2002	13	12	1	805	12.27
2003	7	5	2	779	13.16
2004	14	9	5	779	13.07
2005	8	6	2	781	13.12
2006	4	4	-	745	13.98
2007	16	15	1	716	13.22
2008	15	15	-	711	15.80
2009	20	15	5	679	15.19
2010	17	13	4	675	14.91
2011	27	23	4	722	15.02
2012	24	19	5	714	15.02
Women
2001	16	15	1	864	$10.12
2002	27	24	3	869	10.86
2003	30	28	2	881	11.07
2004	30	27	3	900	11.23
2005	22	20	2	885	12.15
2006	31	30	1	873	11.94
2007	45	43	2	789	11.94
2008	21	19	2	832	13.12
2009	39	34	5	848	13.84
2010	28	22	6	844	13.70
2011	33	26	7	817	13.09
2012	38	26	12	853	13.11
Note: Data exclude all self-employed persons whether or not their businesses are incorporated. - Data not available.

Table 2. Employed wage and salary workers paid hourly rates with earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage by State, 2012 annual averages
State	Number of workers (in thousands)				Percent distribution				Percent of workers paid hourly rates
	Total paid hourly rates	At or below minimum wage			Total paid hourly rates	At or below minimum wage			At or below minimum wage
	Total paid hourly rates	Total(1)	At minimum wage	Below minimum wage	Total paid hourly rates	Total(1)	At minimum wage	Below minimum wage	Total	At minimum wage	Below minimum wage
Total, 16 years and over	75,276	3,550	1,566	1,984	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	4.7	2.1	2.6
Alabama	1,083	65	31	34	1.4	1.8	2.0	1.7	6.0	2.9	3.1
Alaska	194	2	1	1	0.3	0.1	0.1	0.1	1.0	0.5	0.5
Arizona	1,472	68	17	51	2.0	1.9	1.1	2.6	4.6	1.2	3.5
Arkansas	725	50	33	17	1.0	1.4	2.1	0.9	6.9	4.6	2.3
California	8,805	127	45	82	11.7	3.6	2.9	4.1	1.4	0.5	0.9
Colorado	1,234	42	7	35	1.6	1.2	0.4	1.8	3.4	0.6	2.8
Connecticut	853	23	2	21	1.1	0.6	0.1	1.1	2.7	0.2	2.5
Delaware	219	11	4	7	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.4	5.0	1.8	3.2
District of Columbia	103	5	1	4	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2	4.9	1.0	3.9
Florida	4,164	214	49	165	5.5	6.0	3.1	8.3	5.1	1.2	4.0
Georgia	2,114	136	60	76	2.8	3.8	3.8	3.8	6.4	2.8	3.6
Hawaii	331	14	7	7	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	4.2	2.1	2.1
Idaho	404	31	16	15	0.5	0.9	1.0	0.8	7.7	4.0	3.7
Illinois	3,065	85	21	64	4.1	2.4	1.3	3.2	2.8	0.7	2.1
Indiana	1,785	93	50	43	2.4	2.6	3.2	2.2	5.2	2.8	2.4
Iowa	920	46	25	21	1.2	1.3	1.6	1.1	5.0	2.7	2.3
Kansas	780	44	29	15	1.0	1.2	1.9	0.8	5.6	3.7	1.9
Kentucky	1,147	60	30	30	1.5	1.7	1.9	1.5	5.2	2.6	2.6
Louisiana	1,043	74	35	39	1.4	2.1	2.2	2.0	7.1	3.4	3.7
Maine	378	11	3	8	0.5	0.3	0.2	0.4	2.9	0.8	2.1
Maryland	1,327	67	25	42	1.8	1.9	1.6	2.1	5.0	1.9	3.2
Massachusetts	1,567	62	17	45	2.1	1.7	1.1	2.3	4.0	1.1	2.9
Michigan	2,449	90	19	71	3.3	2.5	1.2	3.6	3.7	0.8	2.9
Minnesota	1,522	60	35	25	2.0	1.7	2.2	1.3	3.9	2.3	1.6
Mississippi	700	45	21	24	0.9	1.3	1.3	1.2	6.4	3.0	3.4
Missouri	1,538	97	49	48	2.0	2.7	3.1	2.4	6.3	3.2	3.1
Montana	274	4	1	3	0.4	0.1	0.1	0.2	1.5	0.4	1.1
Nebraska	561	32	17	15	0.7	0.9	1.1	0.8	5.7	3.0	2.7
Nevada	730	23	9	14	1.0	0.6	0.6	0.7	3.2	1.2	1.9
New Hampshire	370	13	5	8	0.5	0.4	0.3	0.4	3.5	1.4	2.2
New Jersey	1,777	103	49	54	2.4	2.9	3.1	2.7	5.8	2.8	3.0
New Mexico	488	23	6	17	0.6	0.6	0.4	0.9	4.7	1.2	3.5
New York	4,075	224	113	111	5.4	6.3	7.2	5.6	5.5	2.8	2.7
North Carolina	2,206	137	74	63	2.9	3.9	4.7	3.2	6.2	3.4	2.9
North Dakota	205	7	3	4	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.2	3.4	1.5	2.0
Ohio	3,277	147	31	116	4.4	4.1	2.0	5.8	4.5	0.9	3.5
Oklahoma	890	64	29	35	1.2	1.8	1.9	1.8	7.2	3.3	3.9
Oregon	982	11	3	8	1.3	0.3	0.2	0.4	1.1	0.3	0.8
Pennsylvania	3,450	195	87	108	4.6	5.5	5.6	5.4	5.7	2.5	3.1
Rhode Island	298	10	2	8	0.4	0.3	0.1	0.4	3.4	0.7	2.7
South Carolina	1,084	59	28	31	1.4	1.7	1.8	1.6	5.4	2.6	2.9
South Dakota	253	12	6	6	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.3	4.7	2.4	2.4
Tennesee	1,554	86	46	40	2.1	2.4	2.9	2.0	5.5	3.0	2.6
Texas	6,060	452	282	170	8.1	12.7	18.0	8.6	7.5	4.7	2.8
Utah	758	37	21	16	1.0	1.0	1.3	0.8	4.9	2.8	2.1
Vermont	184	5	1	4	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.2	2.7	0.5	2.2
Virginia	1,803	123	48	75	2.4	3.5	3.1	3.8	6.8	2.7	4.2
Washington	1,705	29	11	18	2.3	0.8	0.7	0.9	1.7	0.6	1.1
West Virginia	453	26	13	13	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.7	5.7	2.9	2.9
Wisconsin	1,745	94	41	53	2.3	2.6	2.6	2.7	5.4	2.3	3.0
Wyoming	173	9	4	5	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.3	5.2	2.3	2.9
Footnotes: (1) Data may not add to totals due to rounding.
NOTE: Data exclude all self-employed persons whether or not their businesses are incorporated. Users are reminded that these data are based on a sample and therefore are subject to sampling error; the degree of error may be quite large for less populous states. It is not possible to determine clearly whether workers surveyed in the CPS are actually covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) or by individual state minimum wage laws. Thus, some workers reported as earning the prevailing federal minimum wage may not in fact be covered by federal or state minimum wage laws. Also, there are a number of states that have minimum wages that exceed the federal minimum wage. At the same time, the presence of a sizable number of workers with wages below the prevailing federal minimum wage does not necessarily indicate violations of the FLSA or applicable state laws, because there are numerous exclusions and exemptions to these minimum wage statutes. Hourly earnings do not include overtime pay, commissions, or tips.