> You do realize that minimum wage has not kept up with inflation, and much less the cost of living? Inflation? It's far exceeded inflation actually. Minimum w

> You do realize that minimum wage has not kept up with inflation, and much less the cost of living? Inflation? It's far exceeded inflation actually. Minimum wage was introduced in 1938 at $0.25 per hour[1], which would be about $5.06 per hour when adjusted for inflation[2]. Which means, a federal minimum wage of $7.25 far exceeds inflation... by about 43%. Many (most?) states have a higher minimum wage than that even. Cost of living had certainly increased since 1938, but it's not the same everywhere. The COL in San Francisco is no where near the same as Omaha. We cannot apply a universal federal minimum wage of the likes Sam A. is discussing in this post... it quite literally would drive up costs of goods and perpetuate a negative feedback loop. We're seeing it right now in real time. We handed everyone thousands of dollars for "free", and inflation is now rising at levels not seen since the 80's... which mostly squeezes the very people you are trying to help by increasing minimum wage in the first place! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage#United_States [2] https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm [3] https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage