Okay, here is the bullshit of bullshit statistical sleight of hand games:
"Employees who earn between $5.15 and $7.15 an hour are overwhelmingly young and most do not live in poor households."
And then...
"One half of individuals who earn $286 or less a week ($7.15 for 40 hours of work) live in households with annual incomes over $42,671."
Note the transition from per hour to per week, with the ASSUMPTION of full-time work. Of course, many of those making $286 per week are part-time workers making more than $7.15 per hour. So it says little about what kind of family income those making the minimum wage live in, since the babysitters and other folks they are trying to conjure as the picture of minimum wage workers.
There is also the assumption that familes with two parents don't need the help. Two minimum wage or slightly above minimum wage parents still have a horrendously low income, even when combined.
But the main sleight of hand involved is just stenchy.
-- Nathan Newman