thinking of minimum wage through my own personal lens. How disgusted I can be when pondering this.

[NRaleighLiberal]

So, yesterday we had Bezos stepping down, and reports discussed the ridiculously excessive amount of money he has.

We read about millions, billions, trillions in the news - there is no context, it is hard to make sense of it when thinking of how many in our country are totally bereft. (and last night on Newshour Woodruff interviewed Barasso (yuck) and of course he brought up how the COVID package will "mean that they don't have to go back to work", that familiar right wing chestnut about how lazy those who are in dire need are when they finally get some crumbs).

I worked in a grocery store when I was 16, right up until I went to graduate school at age 22. I worked produce or deli, it was a unionized store, and I recall that in 1975 I was making 5.00 per hour.

I found a website that equated my 5.00 per hour with what that would be today - and it is roughly 25.00 per hour, packing apples or slicing bologna. It did feel really good - that is 46 year ago.

And we are arguing about raising the minimum wage to 15.00 per hour? Is this a joke? What the hell.....

Republicans in particular, but the uber wealthy in general, are brain dead in understanding what is needed, and their own personal greed.

[MLAA]

1. Great post. I don't think the Uber wealthy are so much brain dead as indifferent and greedy.

A $15/ hr wage might cut into their tax cuts.

[Wounded Bear]

2. No expert, but I figure $15/hr min is about 10 years behind inflation...

[Turin_C3PO]

3. Before I was disabled,

in 2009, I had a job where I made $10/hr, which was $2.75/hr over the minimum wage. I barely made enough to afford my expenses. And this was in relatively low cost of living southwest NM. I can’t imagine anyone surviving on $7.25 in a high cost of living area in 2021. It’s literally slave wages.

[AmyStrange]

4. +100000000000000000000000000000000 x 2

-

Raising the minimum wage is ALSO a sneaky way to tax capital gains, and it also keeps more money in each state.

Good post and thank you for sharing.
===========

[Walleye]

5. Everything costs at least 5 to 10 times as much as it did in 1975

That is a fact that everybody can understand and observe

[Irish_Dem]

6. They are not brain dead as much as selfish, greedy, obsessed with wealth. It is an addiction.

No amount of money is enough.

And they care nothing about the society which helped them make that wealth.

[Ohiogal]

7. My conservative sister says

“Not all jobs are meant to provide a living wage.”

??!!

[Walleye]

8. And I bet she complains about people on food stamps too

[Ohiogal]

16. Oh yeah.

[csziggy]

9. If I had made $5 an hour when I worked after I dropped out of college

I might not have returned to get my degree!

I worked as a Clerk II for the Florida Department of Workman's Compensation in 1975. The pay was $1.75. Clerk I positions paid $1.35 and those workers had to get food stamps and other assistance to survive. I probably could have qualified for assistance, too. Although it had been normal for state workers to get a pay increase after their first 90 day review and yearly pay increases from the legislature, the year I worked there no one got a pay increase.

Even though I was living in a house trailer I owned and my lot rent was $35 a month, I never went out to eat, and lived frugally, I could not make ends meet - especially since I had to dress up for my non-public face position so spent more money on clothes than I had for all my college years.


One thing I've thought about during this whole crisis is that if minimum wage was increased to an actual living wage that would stimulate the economy many times over what tax cuts to wealthy people ever could. That would especially help the "essential workers" that have kept the economy running during the pandemic and those that have to return to work as the restrictions are ending.

We need to pay workers what they are worth. NOW!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. Are you certain about your pay back then?

In 1975 the federal minimum wage was $2.10.

[mnhtnbb]

10. In 1975 I finished my Master's Degree in Public Health at UCLA

and was the last person in my class of 12 to get a job in my field of hospital administration. I was thrilled to finally get two job offers--starting work in October--when we had graduated in June because the unemployment rate was hovering around 9.5%. I was also entering a male dominated field. There were two other women in my class: a nun (who went to work for her order) and an African American woman who promptly found a job with the Los Angeles County Dept of Health Services. My annual pay for an entry level administrative staff job was $15,000, which equated to $7.21/hour for a 40 hour week (with 3 weeks vacation), except my job was not on the clock. I rarely worked only 40 hours/week and there was no overtime.

From my point of view Republicans are all about money and greed. Somehow they believe that if someone else is getting more, they must be getting less. There is no empathy, no sense of community, no appreciation for the work that someone else does and how it should be valued. It's all me, me, me. My money, my taxes, my rights. It's a badge of honor among them to make sure that others get as little as possible and they get the most. I'm sick of them.

[Ohiogal]

18. Your second paragraph is spot on. I agree 100%.

They are so freaking afraid someone is getting something that they are not. Or that their taxes,which they always complain are too high, are supporting those evil single mothers and lazy people who don’t want to work. I have heard it many times. No sense of community is right. It’s all my, me, mine, with them.

[Midnightwalk]

12. I am 100% for at least $15 for minimum wage

You mentioned you had a job in a unionized store. Unions were critical for decent paying jobs. I wasn't as lucky and didn't make 5 dollars an hour until I got a job in a bank in 1980. I had been working under the table or in minimum or sub-minimum (tipped) jobs since I was too young to legally work...

Unionization is way down. Minimum wage is one pressure point that keeps other jobs paying better. The real issue is that a worker should be able to live securely working 40 hours a week. Living wage or UBI or ??? might be better long run. Right now, increasing minimum wage to at least 15 is best.

Just to keep the comparison to historical minimum wage in perspective, here are some numbers:

These two web sites can be used to adjust minimum wage for inflation.

[link:https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/history/chart|]

[link:https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm|]

The latter uses CPI, which might not reflect enough inflation. I'd be happy to redo the numbers with a different inflation calculator.

Some years:

1956. 1.00. ----> 9.72
1968 1.60 ----> 12.22
1975. 2.10 ----> 10.50
1980. 10.38 ----> 10.38

10 dollars is not nearly enough. 15 dollars is closer to what is needed.

Here's a link to what living wage is needed for different counties around the country. $25 is what is needed for a single parent with one child.
[link:https://livingwage.mit.edu|]

[dalton99a]

13. Kick

[Johnny2X2X]

15. The American Dream

$15 an hour doesn't get you the American Dream, but it gives you hope for it, and it can give you dignity.

I have been there, after high school I didn't go to college, I went into the job market, and looking around I did not see hope. I saw a bunch of $9 and $10 an hour jobs that would mean I'd never have anything in life. I returned to school for a chance in life for me.

$15 an hour would effectively right decades of wrongs. $31K a year for fulltime is still not enough, but it's a mile away from $15K a year. At $15 an hour, you have hope. At $15 an hour our poor neighborhoods are filled with people who see no hope for themselves, they see a world where the floor for you is to be able to live in dignity.

It's about dignity, it's about hope. $15 is still not enough, but it's a great start. If we have to settle for $11, it's better than nothing, but at least push for $12.

[Kaleva]

17. Made $1.50 an hour in the 70s. no min wage for farm labor