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> Why has the US minimum wage only barely begun to budge past the $7.25/h it was set to in 2009, despite that being below poverty lines for most of the country?
by ceeplusplus 4y ago
> Why has the US minimum wage only barely begun to budge past the $7.25/h it was set to in 2009, despite that being below poverty lines for most of the country?
Nobody actually gets paid $7.25/h. Amazon pays $15/h or more nationwide. That's a baseline. In HCOL areas shitty big chain jobs like Target/Chipotle/Starbucks pay $18-22/h and restaurant servers make 25-30. Making those numbers bigger just enriches landlords unless you vastly increase the amount of housing in HCOL areas.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- pwinnski 4y agoThis simply isn't true. The Taco Bell nearest my house is paying $7.25/hr for kitchen staff (more for front-of-house), even though they've had to cut hours and are now "drive-through-only" for big chunks of every day. If nobody got paid $7.25/hr, then there would be no problem raising the minimum wage. As it is, almost nobody in HCOL areas gets paid that, but enough people do, especially outside HCOL areas, that companies spend a lot of money lobbying to ensure the minwage isn't raised.
- ceeplusplus 4y agoThen the people working there aren't rational actors. Amazon is paying $15/h nationally, why would anyone work for $7.25? > even though they've had to cut hours and are now "drive-through-only" for big chunks of every day And when everyone leaves for the higher paying jobs (as they should), they'll raise wages. That's how a market works. > almost nobody in HCOL areas gets paid that No, nobody in HCOL areas gets paid that, not only because state and local minimum wages are higher but also because the market price for unskilled labor is way higher than even local minimum wage. And if you're getting underpaid you should quit. There is plenty of access to market wage unskilled jobs, if those people are staying despite being underpaid that's on them.
- pwinnski 4y ago20 states (out of 50) either do not have minimum wage laws, or have set their minimum wage to the same as the federal minimum wage: $7.25/hour[0]. Since those states include Texas, which alone has 9% of the national population, I continue to feel like "almost nobody" is a better descriptor than "nobody.". One of my daughters was recently looking for unskilled work, and interviewed for several positions paying less than $15/hr, even worked one for two days before quitting, so I could ask her why she is such an irrational actor, but you've already stated that you know my own history better than I do, so maybe you can tell me why she bothered. Why anyone bothers. You seem incredibly sure that the market is more rational than I think evidence suggests. I almost begin to think it's an article of faith, and I'm already over-quota on faith-based arguments for the month. I surrender! Nobody in this country is working for less than $15/hr, so it's completely incomprehensible why so many people are still fighting for a $15/hr minimum wage. Those people must not know what you know. 0. https://www.minimum-wage.org/wage-by-state https://www.minimum-wage.org/wage-by-state