Minimum wage by sex

Who is more likely to earn the federal minimum wage in the United States—a man or a woman? You guessed it. Though the U.S. workforce is 53 percent men and 47 percent women, 62 percent of those earning only the minimum wage (currently $7.25) are women, according to Pew Research Center. Some 5.4 percent of women, or 2.1 million workers, made the minimum wage or less in 2013, compared with 3.3 percent of men, or 1.2 million workers. However, that gap has closed significantly since 1979, when the share of hourly workers who earned the minimum wage was 20.2 percent of women and 7.7 percent of men.