[Ms. TiAnna] Yeldell is among the millions of fast food workers across the U.S. scraping to get by. About two-thirds of them are women, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and many are supporting their families on minimum wages set at the federal government’s floor of $7.25 an hour. Fast food workers are disproportionately Hispanic, making up 24.6% of the industry’s workforce compared with 18.8% of the overall workforce. And more than half of all U.S. fast food workers are 20 or older, “contrary to the myth of it being a teenage job that they just do for pocket money,” said Tsedeye Gebreselassie, an attorney for nonprofit advocacy organization National Employment Law Project.
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Meanwhile, a growing number of states have pushed to increase their minimum wage in the face of record-high inflation in recent years. Voters in Alaska approved a ballot initiative in November that will raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour from $11.73 an hour by 2027. Missouri voters likewise approved a minimum wage hike to $15 from $12.30 an hour by 2026. And California — which has one of the highest costs of living in the country — in April raised wages for fast food workers specifically, to $20 an hour from $16 an hour.
By the end of this year, 23 states and 65 cities and counties will raise their minimum wage floors, according to a December 2024 National Employment Law Project report that combed through legislation across the country.
But not Texas, where Yeldell and her family live. It is one of 20 states at the $7.25 federal minimum wage floor and that rate hasn’t budged since 2009. Democratic lawmakers in Texas have repeatedly proposed legislation to raise the minimum wage in the state to no avail. Preemption laws, which exist in Texas and many other states, block cities and counties from adopting their own minimum wage laws, presenting another barrier.
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Read the full article at APnews.com.
