• Wilzax@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    $7.25 in 2009 is worth $10.62 today. $4.95 in 2009 is worth $7.25 today.

    In effect, the value of federal minimum wage has decreased by 31% in the last 15 years, since a dollar today only buys 69% of what it did in 2009, on average (as defined by the consumer price index)

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I do wonder if trying for $15 is just asking too much. Maybe a compromise at $10.62 to restore what it used to be, is all we can hope for at the moment.

      • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        The minimum wage was supposed to be the absolute minimum a person could be paid in order to live. It’s not an excuse to pay employees starvation wages. No one, and I mean absolutely no one, can survive being paid $11 an hour in today’s economy (much less the $7.25 it is now). That is why nearly every liberal state has independently moved their minimum to at least $15/hr if not more.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Including. Mine, but that leaves out almost half the states. Sometimes politics is about compromise, and a compromise to at least restore purchasing power is better than a living wages ideal that never happens

          • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            That’s defeatist thinking. The fact of the matter is that the Democratic party needs to get much better at their messaging. Right now far too many people think that higher minimum wage would completely disrupt business across the board. And that’s because the Republicans have been propagandizing that idea for the last three decades. We need to counter that argument and we have facts on our side but they need to be couched in something other than a finger wagging liberal politician on television or at a podium.

            • AA5B@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              At this point, peer pressure should be sufficient. I just read here 30 states have higher than the federal minimum wage, so how does that not translate into a 60% vote for at least whichever of those 30 is lowest?

              • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                Do not underestimate the power of media control. The corporations own not just the conservative media outlets but the so-called liberal ones as well.