Fri, Apr 30, 2004 6:04pm ET

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Limbaugh wrong on the minimum wage

Ridiculing Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) for advocating that Congress raise the federal minimum wage, Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed that minimum-wage earners are overwhelmingly teenagers who don't have to support families. From the April 29 Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: There aren't families living on the minimum wage anyway; it's a teenage entry level job for 75% of the people earning minimum wage.

Several minutes later, Limbaugh said:

LIMBAUGH: The people that get the minimum wage are not the people Democrats portray them as being -- heads of households supporting families of four. It's not the case. Let's get real.

The truth is that only 32 percent of minimum wage earners are teens ages 16 - 19, according to the Economic Policy Institute's analysis of 2000 U.S. Census Bureau data.

—G.W.

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Issue:: Economic Issues
Sub-Issue:: Jobs/Wages/Unemployment
Topic:: Minimum Wage

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