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Globalization and other factors didn't help, but the continued refusal to pay people a reasonable wage for full or part time work is a huge part of why the midd

Globalization and other factors didn't help, but the continued refusal to pay people a reasonable wage for full or part time work is a huge part of why the middle class is struggling and the class below is failing to move up into the middle class over time. The minimum wage hasn't budged in decades, and in general wages have not remotely kept up with increases in productivity and revenues. If the minimum wage had been going up middle class wages would have had to increase to stay ahead and likely everyone would be doing a lot better. There's a lot of paranoia about possible negative impacts of wage increases, but it's been tested in many municipalities at this point with no major issues, and virtually every other western country has a much higher minimum than us.

throwaway894345 6y ago
> The minimum wage hasn't budged in decades That doesn't appear to be true: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/history/chart https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/history/chart. Additionally many states have their own higher minimum wages. > in general wages have not remotely kept up with increases in productivity and revenues. Isn't this because of globalization? > There's a lot of paranoia about possible negative impacts of wage increases, but it's been tested in many municipalities at this point with no major issues, and virtually every other western country has a much higher minimum than us. I don't think this is true? I'm pretty sure when we raise wages, jobs move overseas except for those jobs that are fundamentally local (fast-food employees, agricultural workers, construction, sanitation, etc). I'm not opposed to raising wages, but I think we also need to keep jobs from flowing overseas.