Saturday, August 23, 2014

Mapping the Minimum Wage


The Minimum Wage Map is a neat interactive map which allows you to compare the minimum and the average annual salaries (in a range of different occupations) of each U.S. state. If you mouse-over a state on the map you can view the state's minimum hourly wage rate, a yearly minimum wage rate and the average salaries of different occupations.

A number of South Eastern states have no state minimum wage law so the minimum wage in these states is $7.25, which is the federal wage baseline. A number of states also have state minimum wage rates set below the federal minimum wage. Employers in these states must also meet the federal wage baseline of $7.25. Washington has the highest minimum wage at $9.32, followed by Vermont on $8.73.

The map was created with Leaflet. Interestingly the map has dragging set to false - map.dragging.disable(); - which you don't often see implemented on interactive maps. This means that you can't pan around on the map. On this map the user really doesn't need to drag the map around, so disabling panning does seem a logical choice. If you click on the state the map automatically zooms in on the selected state. Clicking on the map again zooms out to show the whole of the United States.

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