How much the US minimum wage — and what it can get you — has changed since the year you were born!
Today, the federal minimum wage is $7.25, the same rate it's been since it was last raised in 2009.
The first federal minimum wage law, enacted in 1938, set minimum hourly rates at $0.25 across the country.
Though the minimum wage has risen incrementally over the years, it hasn't increased enough to account for inflation and the skyrocketing costs of living in many places across the US.
This disparity is clear when you take into account the value of each era's federal minimum wage in today's dollars, as well as the prices of common expenses, like a new home and a gallon of gas.
While 22 states — and Washington D.C — raised their minimum wages in 2020, plenty of others have remained stagnant at the same federal minimum rate that took effect in 2009.
That means right now, 21 states still have a minimum wage of only $7.25. States like Georgia and Wyoming have state minimum wage set at $5.15 which is over two dollars less than the federal minimum, so the latter is enforced.
Despite a September 2019 report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York that found the minimum wage hike in New York State had no immediate discernible effect on job loss and research published earlier this year suggests that raising the minimum wage by just $1 could lead to a drop in suicide rates, the federally mandated minimum wage hasn't budged in over a decade.
By observing the changing hourly minimum rates over the years, juxtaposed alongside their relative value in today's dollars, we can clearly see that incremental increases haven't been remotely enough to ensure minimum wage workers' ability to live in today's economy.
Here's every minimum wage increase, including its value in today's dollars, the cost of a new home in the given year, and the cost of a gallon of gas in the given year.
All adjusted values were determined using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' CPI Inflation Calculator and are current as of the value of a dollar in June 2020.
Read the original article on Business Insider
MU2's Take: I seriously don't understand why it is so hard to figure out that unskilled workers get paid what the market will bear. The average business owner pays the minimum he can pay in order to:
1) Keep overhead low.
2) Allow for increases that will not force him to raise the price of his product.
3) Attract the people of sufficient quality to perform their tasks.
Let's take a look at what would happen if all fast food workers were suddenly making at least $15/hr.
1) Existing worker's making $15/hr would resent the instant demotion to "everyman" status.
2) Other sectors would flock to the "easy money". Consider the bank teller:
a) Sees an easier job, literally right next door.
b) Would get the same pay (or better).
c) Would have way less fiduciary responsibility.
d) Would have a way less stringent dress code.
Why on earth would that teller stay where they are? And what exactly would this do to the economy of everywhere America? I am glad you asked...
1) The banks and other businesses that pay $15/hr or less would see a mass exodus to fast food positions.
2) Those other business would then have to pay more to attract people to the same positions.
3) Prices for all of those businesses would increase drastically increasing the cost of a lot of things.
4) Those dumbass lazy folks that want $15/hr will now be out of work because people who can actually count and put the correct order together will have replaced them.
So who wins under this new world order???? Nobody. Folks, I have found the very first lose-lose scenario that the left is embracing. Any questions???
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