It used to be that having a full-time job meant you could support yourself and your family – but for too many Oregonians, that’s not true anymore. Raising the wage will help hundreds of thousands of hardworking Oregonians pay the rent and put food on the table.
What does it mean to be working for minimum wage?
An Oregon worker earning minimum wage at a full-time job takes home just $20,240 a year – not nearly enough to afford housing, food, gas and other necessities for a family, let alone save for the future.
One in four Oregon workers brings home less than $25,000 each year.
Who are low-wage workers?
The average minimum wage worker is 35 years old.
The folks working in low-wage jobs aren’t teenagers trying to build their resume or make a few extra bucks. They are overwhelmingly adults who are working to support their families.
Researchers at the University of Oregon’s Labor and Education Research Center found that of the nation’s low-wage workers, 88% are adults over age 20, 75% are women, 20% are people of color, and 27% are parents.
Women and people of color make up the largest percentage of our low-wage workforce.
Nationally, the average minimum wage worker is most likely to be a 35-year-old woman—often a mother with a family relying solely on her wages.
In Oregon, women represent more than half of minimum wage workers while people of color make up about 36 percent.
Latinos, Native Americans, and African Americans are nearly twice as likely to live in poverty, and single working mothers are more likely to live in poverty than single working fathers.
