"if the min. wage had increased at the rate of productivity since 1960, it would be $23. Instead, i

[riversedge]

And I read an article that food-other items are increased last few months. I know--just going to grocery store-everything is UP!




It’s Sunday so you should know that if the min. wage had increased at the rate of productivity since 1960, it would be $23. Instead, it’s $7.25.

That's $15.75 per hour that's disappeared from the pockets of low income workers the past 60 years...

We can be a better nation!

Link to tweet

?s=20

[HUAJIAO]

1. In the late 1960s and 1970s on a low middle class income

I could afford a BMW motorcycle, Chateau Petrus, a used John Deere A tractor, .. the list goes on and on... GOOD sushi once a week....
Now.......? Forget it.....

[hydrolastic]

2. Thank you, I had wondered

What it would have been. I had tried to use a inflation calculator but the numbers didn't make sense. Anyway i hope that is accurate as i will use it with the Trump monkeys at work. Another thing i wonder is big CEO's will have to take a pay cut eventually as not all of these costs are going to be able to be passed onto the customer. Won't stop them from trying i bet!

[MissMillie]

3. I've posted that here about 4 or 5 times

saying that this was something that had to be hammered-home in the media.

I was told that it had been widely reported.

[jaxexpat]

6. Except most "journalists" seem to be proud of their fear of talking about numbers.

All stuff with add-tos, take-aways and timeses and goes-intos is just too hard to communicate with sound byte words. And as far as equations go, they're all relative anyway.

[Politicub]

10. It has been reported, but people don't take it seriously. I think this

is because people see it as an interesting fact, but are frustrated by the inaction or outright hostility of people who can do something about it.

Then whiny business owners will bemoan the idea of paying a fair wage, because, apparently they believe they can only be succeed by paying people peanuts.

Poor whites will keep voting for politicians who work against their interests.

Rinse and repeat.

[KPN]

12. Widely reported in a mind-numbingly ignorable

fashion to all those who are too busy to read boring columns. In other words, widely reported my ass. People are only widely waking up to it in mass over the past few years because of Sanders, Warren and a few others. Joe’s doing a good job relatively speaking thus far in his presidency as well. But the major media have not widely reported it in a graphically grabbing fashion by any stretch.

So … you are right in making your observation IMO. They do just fine reporting just about anything they want in graphically grabbing fashion when they really want to.

[Diamond_Dog]

4. Our neighbor down the block where I grew up

Sold Sears vacuum cleaners for a living, and was able to buy a nice, brand new but modest home and support a wife and son on that income. This would have been the early ‘60s.

[TimeToGo]

5. Def would be higher

I don’t know who that person is or where he got that number. That’s a higher level of inflation than I have understood it to be. Maybe. But that’s coming up on 1000 per week full time for min wage and I feel pretty confident that $1 per hour in 1960 wasn’t equivalent to that.

Minimum wage should be raised, though.

[spooky3]

8. This author is calculating relative to productivity not inflation.

Historically, workers’ real wages rise with productivity. But in the past 30+ years, despite huge productivity gains (eg through technology, better educated workers, etc.) workers’ wages are basically stagnant. The gains have gone to the top.

[TimeToGo]

9. I understand

But, I still think that’s overstated for min wage from 1960.

Certainly true that gains to the rich far exceed inflation.

[TexasBushwhacker]

14. SOME workers wages go up with productivity

but some workers lose their jobs because of technology, and it's always been that way. A backhoe is operated by one person, but it replaced a dozen people with shovels. However, beyond the basic machinery that's used now, like backhoes, forklifts and cement trucks, houses have been built the same way for over 70 years. Bricks still have to be laid one at a time.

So the productivity argument doesn't work so well, because some jobs have stayed basically the same, while others have changed dramatically or been created outright.

One thing that has affected everyone equally is inflation. So the inflation argument is much harder to dispute. The minimum wage had the most buying power in 1968 when it was $1.60. If it's adjusted for inflation, it should be between $11 and $12 an hour TODAY. Since any significant raise in the MW will be phased in over several years, go ahead and raise it to $10, then raise it $1 per year until it's $15, and adjust it for inflation every year after that. We get a COLA (as low as it is) every year for Social Security. There should be a COLA for minimum wage too.

[FakeNoose]

7. An extra $630 per week

... using the $15.75 per hour differential. The $630 per week means an extra $32,750 per year annualized.

It's the difference between owning and renting, it's being able to afford a college education for your children, it's getting out of debt and affording decent healthcare.

THIS is what the one-per-centers have stolen from us.

[Nexus2]

11. And so many politicians are losing their minds at the thought of increasing min wage to 15.00

as if that would bankrupt the nation when by rights it should be increased BY 15.00+

And now they're yanking the extra 300 (or cancelling benefits entirely) from the unemployed since its allegedly keeping the 'lazy' serfs from scrambling back for their slave wages.

How do your C.O. is a Republican?

Their latest command was: "Random beating will continue until morale improves!"

[MichMan]

13. Productivity increases are wildly inconsistent across different industries

Some have seen large increases in productivity due to technology while others have not