Money Matters - One Fair Wage Releases New Report Showing Nearly Half of U.S. Workers Earn Below a Living Wage as Cost of Living Crisis Deepens

 One Fair Wage, the national campaign to ensure tipped service workers earn a full and fair minimum wage with tips on top, has released a new report, Making America Affordable Now: The Case for a Living Wage for All, showing that 67 million workers across the United States — nearly half the nation’s workforce — earn less than $25 an hour. The report is being released ahead of massive Labor Day mobilizations  in New York and Chicago as part of a national “Workers Over Billionaires” Day of Action. Organized by One Fair Wage with partners including 50501, Rise and Resist, Physicians for a National Health Program–NY, New York Doctors, Target Majority NYC, and the May Day Strong coalition, thousands of workers will rally to demand real solutions to the affordability crisis and to launch the Living Wage for All campaign.

The brief situates the demand for $25–30 per hour as the next generation of the Fight for $15, highlighting how past gains have been erased by historic inflation, skyrocketing rents, and cuts to basic benefits. A $15 wage set in 2012 is worth just $21 today, while the MIT Living Wage Calculator shows that even in the country’s least expensive counties, a worker with one child would need at least $33 an hour to cover rent, food, and transportation.

Key Report Findings Include:

• Nearly half of all U.S. workers (67 million people) earn less than $25 an hour. In New York, 41 percent of workers earn below this threshold; in Illinois, 44 percent. In Ohio and Michigan, it is nearly one in two workers.
  

• Income inequality has grown sharply. Since 1980, the top one percent have seen their incomes rise by 326 percent, while wages for the middle 60 percent of workers grew by only 73 percent.
  

• A triple threat is worsening the affordability crisis. Tariffs are raising consumer prices; cuts to Medicaid and SNAP are stripping away support that low-wage workers rely on at twice the rate of other industries; and the subminimum wage continues to trap tipped workers in poverty.
  

• Trump’s “No Tax on Tips” policy is ineffective. Two-thirds of tipped workers do not earn enough to file income taxes, meaning the vast majority would see no benefit from this measure.
  
  

“The shocking truth is that half of America cannot afford to live in America,” said Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage. The Fight for Fifteen changed history by lifting up the public imagination and proving that bold demands can become reality. Now workers are calling for something more fundamental, a living wage that actually meets the cost of survival. This Labor Day, thousands of workers are rising up in New York, Chicago, and across the country to demand real solutions and to launch the Living Wage for All campaign to make America affordable now.”

The report also emphasizes the political consequences of failing to address wages and affordability. In 2024, Donald Trump won by courting tipped workers with hollow promises like “No Tax on Tips.” In 2025, candidates who embraced affordability and wage justice have won upset victories in New York, Seattle, and Minneapolis. The brief argues that ensuring democracy can deliver for working people depends on passing real wage increases before the 2026 elections.