Tennessee Leads Nation in Residents that Make Minimum Wage
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — New numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics make Tennessee the top spot for making $7.25 an hour. By the annual BLS figures, 7.4 percent of employees in Tennessee are paid the bare minimum. That’s an increase of 31,000 people from the year before, even as the national number of low-wage workers dropped. “It’s hard to raise a family or maintain a lifestyle when you’re making less than $300 a week,” state Rep. Mike Turner (D-Nashville) told lawmaker in General Assembly before his bill to raise the state’s minimum wage by a dollar was killed for the year. Business groups have fought any mention of raising the state’s minimum wage, even by a small amount. Lobbyist Jim Brown of NFIB Tennessee argues most people holding such low paying jobs aren’t the family breadwinner, or they move up quickly. “It’s a starter wage for the vast majority of people,” Brown says. While Brown says his position is supported by studies from conservative groups like theHeritage Foundation, he acknowledges there are some people stuck at the bottom rung of the pay scale. But he argues raising wages by law would do more to hurt businesses than help workers.
