The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 per hour and that number hasn't budged since 2009. Full-time employment at $7.25 per hour produces just $15,080 in income per year. Even for a small family, that is well below the federal poverty line
Sadly, the lack of "political will" to make the lives of tens of millions of people barely tolerable exists *because* the stock market exists as a casino that has diverged so much from its original intent it has become a mechanism wealthy families to remain wealthy forever while everyone else squabbles over the diminishing pile of scraps.
People repeat stupid things like, "if $15 is the minimum wage then $15 will be worthless." Well, $8 is the minimum now, and $8 is not worthless, sooo...
The fact is, taxpayers are currently making-up the amount employers are not paying in wages via social safety net programs. And, these are not small employers: These are huge companies with lobbyists & cash in the bank to burn.
They always manage to bail out those people who live on capital gains; usually by pointing to 401Ks which is just a smokescreen for bailing out multi-multi-billionaires.
Opulence cannot exist without poverty. When I see private islands for sale, I know I will find children starving to death right around the corner. For shame.
I don't think the problem is the "1%." The problem is more like the "0.01%." I am not joking. The problem is not people who make a million Dollars a year working some kind of job.
The problem is a few hundred families that own more than the rest of the 1% combined. In the market, you pay ~10% on a capital gain. A person working a job pays ~30%. If you sell some funds, stocks, whatever, to raise some cash for something, and you make a profit, then you pay ~10%; However, if you sell something and take a loss, you get a tax deduction! And, of course, holding a stock or fund costs nothing regardless of its current value.
And what do the do for work? Nothing. In which case, you've never heard their name. Or, they do whatever they want. The money in their investments makes them ridiculously wealthy. They have so much money they can afford to put people you would consider very rich "in their pocket."
So, they might start their own fashion label. Or maybe they'd become a with endless promotion & videos & radio play & songs written by someone else & a band of good musicians making good wages. Maybe, they are constantly in the news for the strange things they say or do. Money is power. Power over public image; leaders; nations; minds; & life and death for everyone on this planet.
I wonder if they'll still need us when robots are more sophisticated? ...
P.S. How do they not work but also play in the market? They pay someone else to do all that stuff. And they just ask for cash when they need it and they mostly live on a regular cash distribution.
That minimum wage hasn't changed in years. We are so far behind the rest of the world in making sure that those at the bottom end of the financial spectrum can make a decent living (or a living of any type). So much for the "land of opportunity"..............
Excellent piece about minimum wage but here's my take: Denmark, for instance, easily handles paying minimum wages of US$16 an hour and can still sell Big Macs for US$1 apiece less than they sell for in the United States where no one can live decently on America’s paltry minimum wages. The United States has the greatest income inequality among well-off nations and the most child poverty. https://dianefrancis.substack.com/p/american-un-exceptionalism
Nothing screams for the need to revive the Union Movement like the battle of the minimum wage. When Senators like Joe Manchin, who represents one of the poorest states of the Union, oppose raising the minimum wage, you know we have a huge problem. Many of West Virginia's hourly workers work two jobs and still live below the poverty line, yet their Democratic Senator opposes a graduate raise to $15/hr, which barely gets a family of four above that line. instead, he and the rest solid bloc of Republican opposition are content using taxpayer money to supplement these workers' incomes, which is nothing more than corporate welfare for the likes of Walmart, Amazon, and other low-wage employers. Amazon workers in Alabama are trying to unionize, which would improve wages and working conditions. Keep your eye on that space.
Excellent article. Our Indiana Senator is spending his time talking to small business owners who will say that they'll go out of business if the minimum wage is increased. Let's hope a clumsy server can pour some cold water on that conversation.
I am all for a living wage, but when I hear these arguments I just don't hear enough from small businesses that might be struggling anyway. Also, if a business is providing health care insurance is that calculated into the wage factor? I ran a tiny small business once and this rate increase would definitely have put us under (but we went under anyway so that argument might be moot.) People who love money for money's sake will always want and scheme to get more of it - and exploiting people just comes with their nature, but for a lot of "microbusinesses" owners are barely getting by as it is. I guess I would like to hear more from them. Good article though - very good.
It is not people demanding $15/hr who are damning small businesses; it is people who refuse to consider Medicare for all/small business tax policy/childcare support and a tax policy that duns capital more than labor. It is politicians who fail to exercise anti-trust powers, so that small businesses get swallowed up my conglomerates who set prices. It is corporations who pay executives 320 times (on average) what a worker earns.
You say you are all for a living wage, so I take you at your word, which cannot be followed by a "but." It is inhuman to force people to work for less than they require for food, shelter and health care. It is inhuman to pay McDonald's workers minimum wage when the CEO earns $18 million. Low wages and pro-corporation/anti-labor policy are the fundamental reasons we are approaching civil war. I'm not confident that isn't what it will take to change things.
If the 53 million workers with a median wage of $10.22 all get $5 raises, the before-tax injection into the economy is $265 million.
Even before the pandemic, a lot of small businesses suffered because people simply didn't have the extra money to spend, and it's been like that for decades. One of our local storefronts has been through SIX coffee shops in the past five years. Two of them served some of the best coffee I've ever tasted, and they were less-expensive than Charbucks. Neither lasted six months. The proprietors of both said they had to close because they weren't making enough to cover the bills. They were gettting a lot of traffic, but not many bought and those who did weren't buying anything more than coffee to go.
One of the strip malls here charges 5,000 for a 1200 SQ ft space per month plus 1,000 for parking lot/snow removal. Last 3 years we have had less than a foot of snow per year. You gotta sell a lot of coffee, Cell phones etc to make the rent.
I know what the real problem is and it's not the employees minimum wage...
So that's $6k/month? Even money says the strip mall is owned by some hedge fund or private equity company through a real estate trust. I'd also bet that the parking lot is one massive pothole and has been that way for years.
Sadly, the lack of "political will" to make the lives of tens of millions of people barely tolerable exists *because* the stock market exists as a casino that has diverged so much from its original intent it has become a mechanism wealthy families to remain wealthy forever while everyone else squabbles over the diminishing pile of scraps.
People repeat stupid things like, "if $15 is the minimum wage then $15 will be worthless." Well, $8 is the minimum now, and $8 is not worthless, sooo...
The fact is, taxpayers are currently making-up the amount employers are not paying in wages via social safety net programs. And, these are not small employers: These are huge companies with lobbyists & cash in the bank to burn.
They always manage to bail out those people who live on capital gains; usually by pointing to 401Ks which is just a smokescreen for bailing out multi-multi-billionaires.
Opulence cannot exist without poverty. When I see private islands for sale, I know I will find children starving to death right around the corner. For shame.
Corporations are not people, the people who own them (stock holders) have no agency, or do not use that agency for anything but profits.
tax the 1% ,a wealth tax can redistribute that money to the citizens, These people (1%) need to make a contribution to the American people.
I don't think the problem is the "1%." The problem is more like the "0.01%." I am not joking. The problem is not people who make a million Dollars a year working some kind of job.
The problem is a few hundred families that own more than the rest of the 1% combined. In the market, you pay ~10% on a capital gain. A person working a job pays ~30%. If you sell some funds, stocks, whatever, to raise some cash for something, and you make a profit, then you pay ~10%; However, if you sell something and take a loss, you get a tax deduction! And, of course, holding a stock or fund costs nothing regardless of its current value.
And what do the do for work? Nothing. In which case, you've never heard their name. Or, they do whatever they want. The money in their investments makes them ridiculously wealthy. They have so much money they can afford to put people you would consider very rich "in their pocket."
So, they might start their own fashion label. Or maybe they'd become a with endless promotion & videos & radio play & songs written by someone else & a band of good musicians making good wages. Maybe, they are constantly in the news for the strange things they say or do. Money is power. Power over public image; leaders; nations; minds; & life and death for everyone on this planet.
I wonder if they'll still need us when robots are more sophisticated? ...
P.S. How do they not work but also play in the market? They pay someone else to do all that stuff. And they just ask for cash when they need it and they mostly live on a regular cash distribution.
That minimum wage hasn't changed in years. We are so far behind the rest of the world in making sure that those at the bottom end of the financial spectrum can make a decent living (or a living of any type). So much for the "land of opportunity"..............
Judd, you are a force for good in the world. I am proud to support your efforts through my humble subscription
Me, too
Excellent piece about minimum wage but here's my take: Denmark, for instance, easily handles paying minimum wages of US$16 an hour and can still sell Big Macs for US$1 apiece less than they sell for in the United States where no one can live decently on America’s paltry minimum wages. The United States has the greatest income inequality among well-off nations and the most child poverty. https://dianefrancis.substack.com/p/american-un-exceptionalism
Nothing screams for the need to revive the Union Movement like the battle of the minimum wage. When Senators like Joe Manchin, who represents one of the poorest states of the Union, oppose raising the minimum wage, you know we have a huge problem. Many of West Virginia's hourly workers work two jobs and still live below the poverty line, yet their Democratic Senator opposes a graduate raise to $15/hr, which barely gets a family of four above that line. instead, he and the rest solid bloc of Republican opposition are content using taxpayer money to supplement these workers' incomes, which is nothing more than corporate welfare for the likes of Walmart, Amazon, and other low-wage employers. Amazon workers in Alabama are trying to unionize, which would improve wages and working conditions. Keep your eye on that space.
Excellent article. Our Indiana Senator is spending his time talking to small business owners who will say that they'll go out of business if the minimum wage is increased. Let's hope a clumsy server can pour some cold water on that conversation.
I can't believe it, Judd. You've got no enemy today. Your enemy is *the system*.
Looking forward to reading about your next enemy.
Best,
Melissa Enders
I am all for a living wage, but when I hear these arguments I just don't hear enough from small businesses that might be struggling anyway. Also, if a business is providing health care insurance is that calculated into the wage factor? I ran a tiny small business once and this rate increase would definitely have put us under (but we went under anyway so that argument might be moot.) People who love money for money's sake will always want and scheme to get more of it - and exploiting people just comes with their nature, but for a lot of "microbusinesses" owners are barely getting by as it is. I guess I would like to hear more from them. Good article though - very good.
It is not people demanding $15/hr who are damning small businesses; it is people who refuse to consider Medicare for all/small business tax policy/childcare support and a tax policy that duns capital more than labor. It is politicians who fail to exercise anti-trust powers, so that small businesses get swallowed up my conglomerates who set prices. It is corporations who pay executives 320 times (on average) what a worker earns.
You say you are all for a living wage, so I take you at your word, which cannot be followed by a "but." It is inhuman to force people to work for less than they require for food, shelter and health care. It is inhuman to pay McDonald's workers minimum wage when the CEO earns $18 million. Low wages and pro-corporation/anti-labor policy are the fundamental reasons we are approaching civil war. I'm not confident that isn't what it will take to change things.
If the 53 million workers with a median wage of $10.22 all get $5 raises, the before-tax injection into the economy is $265 million.
Even before the pandemic, a lot of small businesses suffered because people simply didn't have the extra money to spend, and it's been like that for decades. One of our local storefronts has been through SIX coffee shops in the past five years. Two of them served some of the best coffee I've ever tasted, and they were less-expensive than Charbucks. Neither lasted six months. The proprietors of both said they had to close because they weren't making enough to cover the bills. They were gettting a lot of traffic, but not many bought and those who did weren't buying anything more than coffee to go.
One of the strip malls here charges 5,000 for a 1200 SQ ft space per month plus 1,000 for parking lot/snow removal. Last 3 years we have had less than a foot of snow per year. You gotta sell a lot of coffee, Cell phones etc to make the rent.
I know what the real problem is and it's not the employees minimum wage...
So that's $6k/month? Even money says the strip mall is owned by some hedge fund or private equity company through a real estate trust. I'd also bet that the parking lot is one massive pothole and has been that way for years.