An increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 from the current $7.25 would reduce those opportunities, hurting workers and businesses, Republicans say. Republicans note that the Labor Department reports minimum wage workers tend to be young. But they were 45% of workers earning the federal minimum wage or less. But the increase also would boost the earnings for about 16.5 million low-wage workers. The share of low-wage workers who were teens declined to 5% in 2014 from 16% in 1979; the share of low-wage workers ages 35 to 64 increased to 44% from 32%.

Source: Los Angeles Times February 05, 2017 14:03 UTC