The share of Americans earning less than $15 an hour has fallen since the idea of a $15 minimum wage was introduced in 2012. But the people still earning under $15 are more likely to be Black or Hispanic women, a new Washington Post analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows.
In 2014, a few years after the Fight for 15 campaign began, 61 million people earned under $15 an hour, the Post said. In 2019, only 39 million people earned less than $15, representing 28% of the workforce.
But nearly half of Hispanic women and almost 40 percent of Black women were still earning less than $15 an hour in 2019, the Post said. As many as 32 million Americans would benefit from a minimum wage increase to $15.