The United States has always seemed to the rest of the world as a model of wealth and high wages, even for low-income citizens. However, the size of the minimum wage is not the same throughout the country and depends on some peculiarities.
The federal minimum wage regulation was legislated in the United States in 1938. Then this figure was equal to 25 cents per hour. Only those who were engaged in trade, supplying goods from one state to another, had the right to receive this minimum. By 1966, the concept of the minimum state wage already applied to all working US citizens. The "minimum wage" was constantly growing, reaching by 1978 $ 2.65 per hour of work (in modern monetary terms, about $ 9.45). This can be called the average historical maximum, because today the federal minimum wage is $ 7.25 (data as of January 2013).
Situation in the USA today
According to American law, each state only takes note of the "minimum wage" established by the state. In reality, amendments are made that "shift" the minimum level in one direction or another. Moreover, there is a division of all workers who receive an official salary into two categories. The first includes those who receive tips and do not share them with the employer. In the second, those who either do not receive tips at all, or share them with the owner (marked tip credit).
For the first group of American citizens, the minimum wage is $ 2.33 (subject to living in New Jersey, Nebraska, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, plus 9 more states). The maximum is fixed at $ 8.67 if the employee lives in Washington state. For workers who do not receive tips, the conditions are slightly better: the minimum is registered in the Virgin Islands - $ 4.30. The maximum exceeds the federal level and reaches $ 9.92 (San Francisco, California).
Perspectives
During the global economic crisis, American lawmakers began to raise the issue of raising the state "minimum wage". This issue was especially often raised in parliament in 2012. Then Obama proposed to Congress to raise the salary to $ 9 per hour of work, Patt Quinn (Governor of Illinois) proposed raising the bar to $ 10 from 2016, and Senator K. Lightford offered the amount of $ 10.5. Nevertheless, all these wishes remained on paper. The exception is the Californian governor, who promised to raise the lowest wage level from $ 8 to $ 9 from 1.06.2014 to $ 9, and from 1.01.2016 to $ 10.
Regarding the further growth of wages in the American Boston Consulting Group, it is believed that by 2015 the minimum wages in China and the United States will differ by no more than 10%. So far, this applies only to workers engaged in the production of plastics, equipment, furniture. The reason for such a rapid convergence is globalization, the escalation of technological progress.
