Minimum Wage in America at this very moment should be at least $14 an hour to match the intended purpose of "minimum wage" when it was introduced. Instead: $7.50 (depending on the state may be higher, may be lower).
Serious question: Can you explain this? From what I can see, when minimum wage was introduced in 1938, it was 25 cents. When inflation is taken into account (which would include house, gas, food price rises), then you come out at around $8 - $9? I don't see where the $14 comes from.
I might have my history wrong, but with the "New Deal" and introduction of Minimum Wage, it was intended to give workers a
base living wage. Along with Overtime Pay, etc. It was under the "Fair Labo(u)r Act."
You're right in that in current inflation terms for the
time (1938) it'd be $4 an hour. The thing is: The cost of
living has gone up WAY more than the time-frame (1938)'s cost of living was.
Cost of Coke in 1938: $.05USD
Cost of a Coke now a days $1.50-98USD (IIRC, I'd have to look and this is before taxes)
So
things to live with (and I'm using the Coke as an example of raised costs, you could probably do the same with stuff like towels, or toilet paper which would
probably [with my fuzzy memory of history classes] be more than the Coke but still in the $1.00-2.00 range) have gone up, but the "cost-of-living"/fair-standards of a
living wage haven't.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal#Labor_relationshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Labor_Standards_Act_of_1938https://bebusinessed.com/history/history-of-minimum-wage/The
problem (at least in America) is that
Congress is the one that raises the minimum wage. And a lot of these folks get paid
far more than the poverty-line folks do. So they see "no reason" to and then they give a speel about "why should a McDonalds worker have as much as an office worker?"/bootstraps bullshit that is popular with Republicans.
I'd have to look up the poverty line rate at this current year, but that third article says:
In 1968, minimum wage as a percentage of the poverty level was at 99%. In other words, someone working a minimum wage job full-time for one year would be just 1% under the poverty line.
Since 1989, minimum wage as a percentage of the poverty level has averaged around 60%.
[...]
In 2012, the poverty threshold for a single person was $11,945 and $22,283 for a family of four with two children.
An individual who works minimum wage for a full year will make enough to live above the poverty line. However, if that individual is the sole provider for a family of four, then that individual is only earning 65% of the federal poverty guideline according to research collected by the UC Davis Center for Poverty Research.
That doesn't factor in medical bills (which are HUGEly enormous depending on the procedure and insurance fees. I have a medical device that costs $10,000 out-of-pocket if my insurance doesn't cover it [which after having to fight with them through my doctors and the company of the device, FINALLY relented to paying it]), insurance, etc. When you factor those in, a lot of people are
living paycheck-to-paycheck in America and the Federal "Minimum Wage rate" fails there.
