{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/minimum-wage-too-low-to-keep-working-families-out-of-poverty-new-report-finds", "Minimum Wage Too Low to Keep Working Families Out of Poverty, New Report Finds", "2017-10-23", "2017", "2017-10", "Independent", "House", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "www.sanders.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Minimum Wage Too Low to Keep Working Families Out of Poverty, New Report Finds\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tMonday, October 23, 2017\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\tWASHINGTON, Oct. 23 \u2013 The federal minimum wage is leaving millions of families in poverty, according to a\u00a0new study\u00a0prepared by the Government Accountability Office for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).\r\n\r\nWhile 20 percent of working families earning the $7.25 minimum wage or below live in poverty, 13 percent of families with a worker earning up to $12 per hour live in poverty and 5 percent of families of with a worker earning up to $16 per hour live in poverty. Sanders has called for legislation to increase the federal minimum wage to a living wage of $15 per hour.\r\n\r\n\r\n\"As this new report shows, $7.25 minimum wage is a starvation wage that is not enough to keep working families out of poverty.\" Sanders said. \"The United States Congress must raise the minimum wage to a living wage: $15 an hour.\"\r\n\r\n\r\nThirty Senate Democrats have signed onto the bill introduced by Sens. Sanders and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), which would raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2024 and would be indexed to inflation thereafter. The federal minimum wage has not been raised since 2009.\u00a0\r\n\r\n\r\nThe GAO found that higher wages were associated with lower poverty rates. Low-wage workers \u2013 those earning $16 per hour or less \u2013 comprise about 40 percent of the U.S. workforce aged 25 to 64. Millions of these working families and their children are living in poverty as a result of low wages. In 2016, nearly half (48 percent) of single-parent families with a minimum wage worker were living in poverty. In families where the single parent was earning between $12 to $16 per hour, the poverty rates dropped from 48 percent to 17 percent.\r\n\r\n\r\nFive industries consistently employ the majority (70 percent) of low-wage workers \u2013 leisure and hospitality, education and health, professional and business services, wholesale and retail trade and manufacturing. The highest concentration of low-wage workers is in the health and education industry with an estimated 22 to 25 percent of workers.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe report found that an average worker earning the minimum wage or below had annual earnings of $12,441 and may qualify for programs such as Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Additional Child Tax Credit. However, given the very low income eligibility thresholds for some safety net programs, low-wage workers \u2013 even those earning the minimum wage and living in poverty \u2013 may earn too much to qualify.\u00a0\r\n\r\n\r\n\u201cThe gap between the richest Americans and everyone else is wider than at any time since the 1920s,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cInstead of giving huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires, we must invest in critical programs that help working families make ends meet and lift millions of Americans out of poverty.\"\u00a0\r\n\r\n\r\nThe GAO\u2019s study noted that the growing divide between the top 1 percent and everyone else is not only due to wage stagnation among low-wage workers, but in fact attributable to skyrocketing wealth among high earners. \u201cRecent studies have found that while average wages experienced little or no change from 1973 through 2011 (when held in constant 2011 dollars), income inequality increased as a direct result of income growth among high-wage workers,\u201d the GAO wrote.\r\n\r\n\r\nOther key findings in the report include:\r\n\r\n \r\nOnly 5 percent or less of families with a low-wage worker received\u00a0TANF cash assistance at least once in the last year between 1995 and 2016.\r\nIn 2016, most single-parent families (82 percent) with a minimum wage earner lived below 200 percent of the federal poverty line.\r\nIn 2016, 37 percent of all families with a minimum wage earner lived below 200 percent of the federal poverty line. Twenty-four percent of all families earning between $12 to $16 per hour lived below 200 percent of the federal poverty line.\u00a0\r\nA hypothetical low-wage worker ages 25 to 64:\r\n \r\n \r\n\r\nearning $7.25 per hour or less would have annual earnings of $12,441 \u2013 making them eligible for Medicaid, SNAP, EITC and ACTC\r\nearning $7.25 to $12 per hour would have annual earnings of $20,592 \u2013 making them eligible for Medicaid, SNAP, EITC and ACTC\r\nearning $12 to $16 per hour would have annual earnings of $30,784 \u2013 making them eligible for EITC and ACTC\r\n\r\n \r\n \r\nThe percent of workers earning $12 to $16 per hour with college degrees increased from 16 percent in 1995 to 22 percent in 2016.\r\n \r\nRead the report\u00a0here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/minimum-wage-too-low-to-keep-working-families-out-of-poverty-new-report-finds"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5913541428744793, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}