Women make up the majority of minimum wage workers in the United States, and the failure to raise the federal minimum wage—which has remained frozen at $7.25 an hour since 2009—has had an outsized impact on their economic well-being. For tipped workers, the situation is even more precarious, as reliance on tips creates income instability, increases vulnerability to harassment, and makes it nearly impossible to weather financial setbacks.
Wages alone don’t tell the whole story. Women, and especially women of color, are overrepresented in the low-wage jobs most likely to lack predictable schedules, paid leave, health insurance, and retirement benefits. Strong labor standards that guarantee fair pay, stable schedules, and safe workplaces are fundamental to closing gender and racial economic gaps and ensuring that all workers can achieve basic financial security.
Featured Policy Solutions
Ensure that all workers have access to a fair wage.
Policymakers should raise the federal minimum wage to at least $17 per hour, accompanied by a mechanism to ensure it keeps pace with the economy in the future without necessitating additional legislative action. In addition, policymakers should eliminate the subminimum wage and ensure that every worker, including tipped, disabled, and temporary teenage workers, has access to the minimum wage before tips.
Enact policies that protect and strengthen workers' right to unionize and collectively bargain for better pay and working conditions.
Policymakers should oppose any efforts to undermine existing statutes and policies that support the formation of unions and the ability of workers to engage in collective bargaining.
Work to promote safer workplaces and enact new mechanisms to address workplace harassment and violence.
Policymakers should look to both expand existing protections and improve outreach, education, and research on workplace harassment. Further, policymakers should work to improve the ability of workers who experience these issues to seek justice and recompense, including by enacting prohibitions on forced arbitration and other policies that prevent workers from reporting harassment.
Given the significant overrepresentation of women in low-paying jobs, the minimum wage is a crucial determinant of women’s economic well-being in the US.
