A third of US workers make less than $15 an hour, and they're struggling to make ends meet

• Over 50 million US workers make less than $15 per hour, according to a new Oxfam America report.
• Report author Kaitlyn Henderson said that pay "is just not livable," especially with high US inflation.

Low-wage workers, including many who were praised as "essential" or as "heroes" during the pandemic, "have not been given adequate compensation," according to Kaitlyn Henderson, author of a new report from Oxfam America analyzing pay in the US.

Those low wages come amid a period of soaring corporate profits, which "are not being equitably distributed to workers," Henderson, senior researcher at Oxfam America, told Insider.

The report from Oxfam America finds that there are over 51.9 million US workers — about a third of the labor force — who are making less than $15 per hour, or about $31,000 per year working full-time. Henderson said this level of pay "is just not livable."

Inflation, which is at a 40-year high, isn't helping, with Henderson noting that it can be difficult for these workers to be able to pay for basic necessities. The prices of important goods and services, like electricity and medical care are far higher than before the pandemic.

Alongside the new report are interactive maps from Oxfam America that highlight the share of workers by state who are earning less than $15, as well as breakdowns by race, age, parenthood, and gender.

Mississippi had the highest share of people making less than $15 per hour among the states and DC, at 45.3% for the state. Puerto Rico had a higher share than any state in the analysis, with 76.5% of its workers making less than this amount.

Henderson said the map shows that "where you live really determines whether or not you're going to be able to afford the cost of living."

California and Washington as well as DC have smaller shares of their workforces earning less than $15 an hour compared to the rest of the US. One reason for this could be because of their higher minimum wages.

"If you were to get a job at a minimum wage position and you're getting over $15 an hour, that incentivizes other companies to raise their wages as well because if they don't, they can't compete," Henderson said about these two states and DC.

The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since July 2009 and advocates are looking to increase it to $15. Henderson said that $15 should be a "starting point" but not the "end goal."

Henderson said an hourly rate of $15 "depending on where you live really isn't enough to cover all of the basic necessities, especially if you have children." According to Child Care Aware of America's calculations and methodologies, the national average childcare price was $10,174 a year in 2020, about a third of what a full-time worker earning $15 would make.

Raising the minimum wage would be especially beneficial for working mothers, workers of color, and rural workers. The Oxfam America report found that four in 10 people of color make less than $15 an hour.

"The evidence is clear that minimum wage increases overwhelmingly benefit the low-wage workforce," economist Ben Zipperer of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) previously told Insider via email.

"There is sometimes a perception that the workers who would benefit from a higher minimum wage are mostly teenagers in their first jobs," the authors of an Economic Policy Institute report wrote. "In fact, the data show that most of the workers who would benefit from a federal increase to $15 are older and full-time workers."

While 46.1 million adults — those who are at least 20 years old — earn less than $15 an hour according to Oxfam America's analysis, there are only a total of 5.8 million people between 16 and 19 years old who are also making less than this rate.