According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1.8 million paid-hourly employees were paid the federal minimum wage of $7.25 in 2010. They are primarily 2 mostly equal groups.

49% are under 25. 62% of this group live in families with incomes two or more times the poverty level. 17% percent are below the poverty line.

51% are 25 or older. 29% live in poor families. 46% makes less than 1.5x the poverty level. 25% of the 46% voluntarily work part-time, and 34% are full-time full-year employees.

Only 21% of all minimum wage workers are family heads or spouses working full time, 31% are children, and 32% are adults enrolled in school. The popular belief that minimum wage workers are poor adults (25 or older), working full time and trying to raise a family is largely untrue. Less than 5% (4.7% in 2010) match that description.

All of this can be found by looking at the Bureau of Labor Statistic's Current Population Survey data.

In the federal minimum wage increase from $5.15 to $7.25, 16% of the workers who were expected to gain from it lived in poor households. In the previously discussed proposal to raise it to $9.50, 11% of the workers who would gain live in poor households. Of that 11%, 63% are second or third earners living in households with incomes twice the poverty line.

More interestingly, we should take look at what Governor Togiola Tulafono siad in sworn testimony before the Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs, House Committee on Natural Resources, on Sep 23, 2011:
"We are watching our economy burn down. We know what to do to stop it. We need to bring the aggressive wage costs decreed by the Federal Government under control... Our job market is being torched. Our businesses are being depressed. Our hope for growth has been driven away."
What he was discussing was, the impact of minimum wage increases on American Samoa. The US imposed between 2007 and 2009, and it turned out so bad that Obama signed into law a bill postponing the minimum wage increases scheduled for 2010 and 2011. Governor Togiola Tulafono came before Congress to try to stop the scheduled 2012 increase of $0.50.

Since it went so badly when they tried to raise the minimum wages that Obama took action to stop it, why is he pushing for it for the rest of the country now? Did he not learn from that experiment, or is he intentionally attempting to repeat the same effect?