NEW YORK — With summer having gotten off to a scorching start, workers across the country may be dreaming of a seaside escape or cutting out early to watch a movie in an air-conditioned theater.
![Hours](https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/87/287751f7-422b-5a66-a627-2bd96774695c/668877bb6524c.image.jpg?resize=150%2C100 150w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/87/287751f7-422b-5a66-a627-2bd96774695c/668877bb6524c.image.jpg?resize=200%2C133 200w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/87/287751f7-422b-5a66-a627-2bd96774695c/668877bb6524c.image.jpg?resize=225%2C150 225w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/87/287751f7-422b-5a66-a627-2bd96774695c/668877bb6524c.image.jpg?resize=300%2C200 300w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/87/287751f7-422b-5a66-a627-2bd96774695c/668877bb6524c.image.jpg?resize=400%2C267 400w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/87/287751f7-422b-5a66-a627-2bd96774695c/668877bb6524c.image.jpg?resize=540%2C360 540w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/87/287751f7-422b-5a66-a627-2bd96774695c/668877bb6524c.image.jpg?resize=640%2C427 640w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/87/287751f7-422b-5a66-a627-2bd96774695c/668877bb6524c.image.jpg?resize=750%2C500 750w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/87/287751f7-422b-5a66-a627-2bd96774695c/668877bb6524c.image.jpg?resize=990%2C660 990w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/87/287751f7-422b-5a66-a627-2bd96774695c/668877bb6524c.image.jpg?resize=1035%2C690 1035w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/87/287751f7-422b-5a66-a627-2bd96774695c/668877bb6524c.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C800 1200w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/87/287751f7-422b-5a66-a627-2bd96774695c/668877bb6524c.image.jpg?resize=1333%2C888 1333w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/87/287751f7-422b-5a66-a627-2bd96774695c/668877bb6524c.image.jpg?resize=1476%2C984 1476w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/87/287751f7-422b-5a66-a627-2bd96774695c/668877bb6524c.image.jpg?resize=1763%2C1175 2008w)
Chris Langer, top right, co-founder of CMYK, a digital design agency, speaks with a staff member at their office June 25 in New York.
For some, that can be a reality. Business owners have found that offering summer hours — a reduced schedule on Fridays, usually between Memorial Day and Labor Day — can be a way to boost employee morale. Workers are able to deal with summer child care gaps, return to the office refreshed and feel like their job values them, owners say.
Reduced hours in the summer months can also enable smaller businesses to stand out to prospective employees in a competitive talent marketplace.
“When smaller employers have less resources and they want to be more competitive with attracting and retaining quality talent, they want to be creative with the benefits that they offer. And one of the benefits they can offer would be flexible time in the summer,” said Rue Dooley, a knowledge adviser at the Society for Human Resources Management.
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Special summer schedules don’t work for all types of industries, however. And it takes some trial-and-error to figure out the best option for each company.
Career Coach Eliana Goldstein shares tips on how to maximize your summer job search.
Michael Wieder, co-founder of Lalo, which makes baby and toddler products, thought summer hours were a good fit for his 32 employees because so many of them, about 75%, are parents.
His staffers work remotely and are spread across the U.S. and several other countries. Since founding the company in 2019, he tried various summer hour schemes, such as offering every other Friday off, but the current system works the best, he said. On Fridays, the business closes at 1 p.m. local time. Staffers also get four-day weekends for Memorial Day, Labor Day and July 4th.
“We know that child care is harder during the summer,” he said. “Summer is a time where people do like to take time with their family or take trips, and we want to be able to reward our employees with some additional time with their families.”
Greg Hakim, owner of Corporate Ink in Boston, which offers PR services to emerging tech companies, said he uses summer hours as both a recruitment and retention tool. He plays up summer hours in job descriptions and said the perk has helped him retain staff – particularly during the pandemic when others found it hard to keep workers.
“It’s just helped us retain our team during the ‘Great Resignation,’ people are just like losing people left and right,” he said. ”And I think we went 23 months without having someone resign. And that’s just such an important benefit and competitive advantage.”
Jim Christy co-owns Midwest Cards, a trading card retailer based in Columbus, Ohio, with about 30 employees. He started offering summer hours — Fridays off after 2 p.m. — in 2021, a year after founding the company, as the pandemic upended normal ways of working.
The hardest part was figuring out what to offer people who worked in his brick-and-mortar shop, who also fill online orders, since they had to work normal hours to keep the store running. He decided to give logistics-side workers Friday afternoons off while the six staff who work on the brick-and-mortar side and do customer service for online orders get off on Mondays, when the store was closed. Some workers can sign on remotely to answer customer queries if they want to, but it is not required.
“We couldn’t just apply one situation to everybody. So that that was a little challenging,” he said.
![hours](https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/97/497b3b25-02f0-5724-84c6-1619f2b51172/668877c01457f.image.jpg?resize=150%2C100 150w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/97/497b3b25-02f0-5724-84c6-1619f2b51172/668877c01457f.image.jpg?resize=200%2C133 200w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/97/497b3b25-02f0-5724-84c6-1619f2b51172/668877c01457f.image.jpg?resize=225%2C150 225w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/97/497b3b25-02f0-5724-84c6-1619f2b51172/668877c01457f.image.jpg?resize=300%2C200 300w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/97/497b3b25-02f0-5724-84c6-1619f2b51172/668877c01457f.image.jpg?resize=400%2C267 400w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/97/497b3b25-02f0-5724-84c6-1619f2b51172/668877c01457f.image.jpg?resize=540%2C360 540w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/97/497b3b25-02f0-5724-84c6-1619f2b51172/668877c01457f.image.jpg?resize=640%2C427 640w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/97/497b3b25-02f0-5724-84c6-1619f2b51172/668877c01457f.image.jpg?resize=750%2C500 750w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/97/497b3b25-02f0-5724-84c6-1619f2b51172/668877c01457f.image.jpg?resize=990%2C660 990w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/97/497b3b25-02f0-5724-84c6-1619f2b51172/668877c01457f.image.jpg?resize=1035%2C690 1035w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/97/497b3b25-02f0-5724-84c6-1619f2b51172/668877c01457f.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C800 1200w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/97/497b3b25-02f0-5724-84c6-1619f2b51172/668877c01457f.image.jpg?resize=1333%2C888 1333w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/97/497b3b25-02f0-5724-84c6-1619f2b51172/668877c01457f.image.jpg?resize=1476%2C984 1476w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/97/497b3b25-02f0-5724-84c6-1619f2b51172/668877c01457f.image.jpg?resize=1763%2C1175 2008w)
Chris Langer, co-founder of CMYK, a digital design agency, speaks with employees at their office June 25 in New York.
For some companies, summer hours work so well they’ve gone even further. Chris Langer, co-founder of digital marketing agency CMYK, has 14 staffers who all usually work in the company’s studio.
In 2014, rather than offer Friday afternoons off, he started offering entire Fridays off during the summer — every other week. Then, last year, Langer started hearing chatter about the four-day work week, so he decided to try that out during the summer.
Communicating with the company’s tight knit staff, who have all worked together for years, makes the four-day week doable, Langer said.
“We’re small, so, it’s easy to have a discussion with everybody on like what’s real and how everyone’s feeling, if they’re feeling stressed out, can they get their work done,” he said.
If a big project is due, he might call people in on a Friday, but so far, that has happened only twice since CMYK instituted the four-day week.
“It is more stressful in terms of getting the work done throughout the week, but the day (off) was much more of a payoff,” he said.
Of course, summer hours don’t work for every company. Retail stores risk losing customers to big box stores or others that are open for more hours. And employees who are paid by the hour rather than set salaries can balk at getting paid for fewer hours.
Summer’s officially here; time for a vacation, right? Maybe not. A new report said Americans take the least vacation time in the word.
Jennifer Johnson, owner of True Fashionistas, a consignment shop in Naples, Florida, thought she would try summer hours in 2022 because Naples is seasonal, with the busiest part of the year wrapping up around Easter. Beginning May 1, she changed her open hours from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. to 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. But the change didn’t work.
“We have a staff of 45 to 50 employees, and it cut their hours and that upset them, and rightfully so,” she said. “It also upset our customers who were used to our hours and wanted to shop.”
She abandoned the effort after two months and hasn’t tried again.
“I really believe that with anything consistency is the key,” she said. “The customers need to know they can rely on you to be open, you cannot always be changing your hours because that is a quick way to lose customers.”
How the US minimum wage compares to other countries
How the US minimum wage compares to other countries
![How the US minimum wage compares to other countries](https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/89/a89afa36-7a88-53d5-b8da-b3c35d94eac2/664418ad4284d.image.jpg?resize=150%2C107 150w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/89/a89afa36-7a88-53d5-b8da-b3c35d94eac2/664418ad4284d.image.jpg?resize=200%2C143 200w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/89/a89afa36-7a88-53d5-b8da-b3c35d94eac2/664418ad4284d.image.jpg?resize=225%2C160 225w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/89/a89afa36-7a88-53d5-b8da-b3c35d94eac2/664418ad4284d.image.jpg?resize=300%2C214 300w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/89/a89afa36-7a88-53d5-b8da-b3c35d94eac2/664418ad4284d.image.jpg?resize=400%2C285 400w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/89/a89afa36-7a88-53d5-b8da-b3c35d94eac2/664418ad4284d.image.jpg?resize=540%2C385 540w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/89/a89afa36-7a88-53d5-b8da-b3c35d94eac2/664418ad4284d.image.jpg?resize=640%2C456 640w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/89/a89afa36-7a88-53d5-b8da-b3c35d94eac2/664418ad4284d.image.jpg?resize=750%2C535 750w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/89/a89afa36-7a88-53d5-b8da-b3c35d94eac2/664418ad4284d.image.jpg?resize=990%2C706 990w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/89/a89afa36-7a88-53d5-b8da-b3c35d94eac2/664418ad4284d.image.jpg?resize=1010%2C720 1035w)
For almost 15 years, the U.S. federal minimum wage has remained stuck at $7.25 an hour, amounting to $15,080 annually for a full-time, 40-hour week. That’s just over the poverty line.
More than 3 out of 5 adults representing almost every demographic group in the U.S. favor raising the federal wage floor to $15 an hour, according to a 2021 survey by the Pew Research Center. Even among those who oppose the $15 raise, a majority still favor a slight increase.
Inflation and productivity have long outpaced the $7.25 federal minimum wage. Its purchasing power dropped 17% between 2009 and 2019, reflecting an annual loss of over $3,000 in earnings for full-time workers. It is an unlivable wage in most parts of the U.S., covering only 29% of living expenses in places like New Hampshire. The National Low Income Housing Coalition points out that the average minimum wage earner would have to work 97-hour weeks to afford rent in a two-bedroom apartment at fair market value.
What’s more, swaths of low-wage workers in the U.S. aren’t covered by the minimum wage umbrella. This includes tipped employees, disabled workers, and teenagers who have been employed for under 90 days.
In addition to stagnant wages and decreased purchasing power, other cutbacks are affecting minimum wage earners. Around 20% less federal spending is now going to benefits like Medicaid, public housing, and social security insurance than in the early 1990s. Squeezed between an unlivable wage and a social safety net that’s wearing thin, many minimum wage earners are in an untenable situation.
The minimum wage backstory
The mandate to establish standardized pay for workers—the minimum wage—in the U.S. was almost always contentious, finally enacted by former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1938 after years in the courts on grounds of unconstitutionality. Since its foundation, the minimum wage has been raised 22 times, creeping up from a pittance of 25 cents per hour until plateauing in July 2009.
In some cases, raising the minimum wage had an effect on equality across the economy. The 1966 raise bridged the income gap by more than 20% between Black and white Americans, according to an analysis by University of California, Berkeley researchers.
Until the 1970s, rate increases were linked to inflation and productivity—the ability to generate income by creating goods and services. By adjusting the minimum wage in tandem with other economic increases, workers were better able to keep up with rising costs.
Today, the stagnant minimum wage makes the U.S. an outlier among other countries. According to the Pew Research Center, at least 80 other countries have requirements to review their minimum wages every few years. However, unlike some other countries, the U.S. has the ability to give states, cities, and industries the power to set their own minimum wages exceeding the federal mandate. For instance, California fast-food workers earn at least $20 an hour, and in Tukwila, Washington, a $20.29-per-hour minimum wage makes it the highest local rate in the country.
Resistance to change
Some opponents of raising the rate argue that minimum wage workers are “unskilled,” just getting started in the workforce, or only need extra spending money. This contradicts analysis from the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization, which found that the majority of low-wage workers were at the peak of their earning years and were the primary breadwinners for their families.
To chart the wage disparities between the U.S. and other developed nations, JobTest.org used data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to look at minimum wages across continents. Only 18 of the 35 OECD countries are illustrated here, representing only the countries with higher minimum wages than the U.S.
This analysis used purchasing power parities conversion rates to compare earnings across currencies, adjusting dollar values for cost differences.
Across continents, minimum wages are higher than in the US
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There are numerous ways that other countries around the world handle the establishment of a minimum wage. A variety of factors can impact the pay and benefits of minimum wage earners, and minimums are set by commissions, collective bargaining, or other factors.
In 2022, when inflation was around a 40-year high, minimum wage earners in the poorest countries were often hit hardest. Luckily for workers in France, Belgium, Poland, and Luxembourg, the minimum wage is essentially raised automatically, in line with price indexes. As of April 2024, only about 17% of countries have minimum wages at or above the cost of living, many of which are in Western Europe, according to data from the WageIndicator Foundation, a global nonprofit that maintains a global living wage database.
Other increases may pay lip service to economic equity but don’t impact real change. For example, in Hong Kong—a region with a wage gap of 47 times between the richest and poorest residents—the government raised its minimum wage by a mere 32 cents in May 2023, pushing it up to 40 Hong Kong dollars, or around $5.10 in U.S. currency. Critics argued that the new minimum wage still falls behind what a family of two is eligible for through social services.
Other countries use government benefits to bolster—or harm—minimum wage earners. France has fought again and again since 1995 to reduce employers’ contributions to social security for minimum wage workers, according to an OECD policy brief. Meanwhile, the United States, Spain, Slovenia, and Mexico make minimum wage workers pay more in social security benefits or employment taxes than workers earning the median wage.
Some states surge ahead
![Some states surge ahead](https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/e6/5e65599f-e0d4-5ebb-9acc-2efd9c25de0e/664418b2cd8eb.image.jpg?resize=150%2C107 150w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/e6/5e65599f-e0d4-5ebb-9acc-2efd9c25de0e/664418b2cd8eb.image.jpg?resize=200%2C143 200w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/e6/5e65599f-e0d4-5ebb-9acc-2efd9c25de0e/664418b2cd8eb.image.jpg?resize=225%2C160 225w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/e6/5e65599f-e0d4-5ebb-9acc-2efd9c25de0e/664418b2cd8eb.image.jpg?resize=300%2C214 300w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/e6/5e65599f-e0d4-5ebb-9acc-2efd9c25de0e/664418b2cd8eb.image.jpg?resize=400%2C285 400w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/e6/5e65599f-e0d4-5ebb-9acc-2efd9c25de0e/664418b2cd8eb.image.jpg?resize=540%2C385 540w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/e6/5e65599f-e0d4-5ebb-9acc-2efd9c25de0e/664418b2cd8eb.image.jpg?resize=640%2C456 640w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/e6/5e65599f-e0d4-5ebb-9acc-2efd9c25de0e/664418b2cd8eb.image.jpg?resize=750%2C535 750w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/e6/5e65599f-e0d4-5ebb-9acc-2efd9c25de0e/664418b2cd8eb.image.jpg?resize=990%2C706 990w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dailyprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/e6/5e65599f-e0d4-5ebb-9acc-2efd9c25de0e/664418b2cd8eb.image.jpg?resize=1010%2C720 1035w)
While the federal wage remains stuck, local jurisdictions—and even some companies—are finding a workaround. Thirty-four U.S. states and territories have surpassed the federal minimum wage to varying degrees. West Virginia bumped the wage floor slightly up to $8.75; on the higher end, beginning July 2024, Washington D.C. will pay a minimum wage of $17.50.
A number of cities, like Chicago, have introduced their own minimum wage. The rate in Illinois is $14, but in Chicago, the rate is $15.80 for companies with 21 workers or more, and it will increase again in July 2024. Some companies, including Costco and Amazon, have also instituted company-wide minimum wages.
For more than a decade, the ongoing partisan divide has thwarted attempts in Congress to override the minimum wage statute. The latest federal movement on wages was the Raise the Wage Act, a bill first introduced in 2017. Frequently resurfaced by its sponsor, Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the latest initiative in 2023 proposed a gradual federal minimum wage increase to $17 by 2028. Currently, the bill sits in committee.
There are some bright spots on the wage horizon, however. President Biden signed an executive order in 2021 that raised the hourly wage for federal contractors to $15, with automatic increases for inflation, covering a range of workers from maintenance professionals to nurses caring for veterans.
And despite a standstill at the federal level, local jurisdictions will achieve much of what advocates have long pushed for by year’s end. In 25 states as well as 60 cities and counties, the minimum wage floor has or will increase by the time 2024 comes to a close, with over half of those jurisdictions hitting a $15 minimum.
Story editing by Alizah Salario. Copy editing by Tim Bruns.
This story originally appeared on JobTest.org and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
How the US minimum wage compares to other countries
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