Under 5% of the US wage earners make the minimum wage or less, which means that since wage earners only represent a bit over half the total work force (the rest are paid a fixed salary), those who earn the minimum wage make up less than 3% of the total work force.
In addition, the government has imposed new social-security contributions on low-wage jobs, and tightened restrictions on the self-employed, part-time work and fixed-term contracts.