Doesn’t the minimum wage mostly affect teenagers?
Contrary to stereotypes, workers whose pay scales are affected by the minimum wage are overwhelmingly adults, including many who are supporting families.
Adults age 20 or older make up 9 in 10 workers who would receive a raise if the federal minimum wage were raised to $12 per hour by 2020, according to an analysis of Census data by the Economic Policy Institute.
Since the Great Recession, more and more Americans are spending their careers in low-wage jobs, where the minimum wage helps set pay scales. The median age of home health care workers, for example, who are mostly female and who constitute one of the nation’s fastest-growing low-wage occupations, is 45.