Minimum Facts From Washington Times

thinkprogress.org
Minimum Facts From Washington Times

Morgan Spurlock – the guy who lived for a month on McDonalds in the movie “Super-Size Me” – has a new television project. In the first episode of his show, which will air on FX, Spurlock and his fiancée live on minimum wage for 30 days. In today’s Washington Times columnist John McCaslin has this to say about the episode:


The Department of Labor has set the federal minimum wage is $5.15 per hour, although many states have minimum wage laws that are higher. (If employees are subject to both the state and federal minimum wage, they are entitled to the higher of the two minimum wages.) Ohio, where Mr. Spurlock sought employment, is one of only two states with minimum wage rates lower than the federal rate, the other being Kansas, which might explain why he chose the state for filming. Had he chosen to stay home and look for work in California, he would have found the state’s minimum wage is higher than the federal rate.

McCaslin wants to give his readers the impression that Spurlock’s experience was uncommon because Ohio’s minimum wage is so low. That’s not true. Twenty-nine states have a minimum wage that is at or below the federal limit. Six states don’t have any minimum wage at all. In other words, 35 states have the exact same minimum wage as Ohio.