American Medical Association Adopts Policy Linking Poverty-Level Wages to Adverse Health Outcomes
The American Medical Association (AMA) has adopted a new policy affirming that poverty is detrimental to health and advocating for federal, state, and local minimum wage policies that include provisions for future inflation adjustments. The AMA highlights that the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, translating to an annual income of $15,080 for a full-time worker, is insufficient for a single parent to support even one child above the federal poverty line. This contrasts sharply with 1968, when the federal minimum wage was adequate to keep a family of three out of poverty. The declining real value of the minimum wage is identified as a primary factor in the growing inequality between low-wage and middle-wage workers since the late 1970s. The AMA notes that approximately 88% of minimum wage workers in the U.S. are over 20 years old, with an average age of 35.7, and nearly 67% are female. Many of these workers are in food service, sales, or personal care roles, and about 28% have children, incre...
