Have you ever argued with someone who's against raising the minimum wage?

[0rganism]

19. right here you're close to the underlying rationale, as i see it

> the most passionate opponents of a higher minimum wage tend, in my experience, to be making little more than the minimum wage themselves
(emphasis added)

this is the #1 factor. it's a long established tradition in this country that earning potential = virtue, so even if they're only earning $0.10/hr over minimum, in their minds they've proved themselves superior to anyone making a minimum wage.

if the minimum wage rises, even if it pushes their salaries up nearly as much, it also pushes up the salaries of those to whom they used to be able to think of themselves as superior. suddenly they're stuck earning minimum wage too, and are no longer able to find evidence of their superiority in their hourly wages.

you can argue absolute benefits of raising everyone's wages until you're blue in the face, the problem is they see themselves losing a relative benefit, tiny and illusory as it may be -- the ability to see themselves as "better" than someone else. this is a barely conscious self-deception rooted in alienation and a lack of true self-esteem.

naturally, none of them will ever admit to it straight up, but watch the vigor with which they cling to their self-deceit, and the put-downs they rain upon those earning slightly less than them. it is this phenomenon which makes worker solidarity in this country so very difficult.