Raising the Minimum Wage to $15/hour

 I guess I was fortunate to be entering the low wage workforce as a teenage when the minimum wage was equivalent to $12/hour in 2021. 

For those people who oppose raising the minimum wage to $15/hour, check out the wisdom from the Pearls Before Swine comic strip by Stephan Pastis  (2/14/21): https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine

Since 1978 the Average American worker had an 11% increase in compensation. During same time period average CEO pay increase 940%.

Minimum Wage and the Presidential Campaign

Raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $12 would lift pay for 35 million workers (and their children), or 1 in 4 employees nationwide.
Income for the median household has fallen 2.4% since 1999, despite a big gain in 2015.
The U.S. still had fewer middle-income jobs than it did before the recession.
It's not just teenagers earning the minimum wage. "Contrary to popular myth, low-wage jobs aren't dominated by teenagers earning extra spending money. About half of fast-food workers are 25 or over. And one-quarter have children."
Hillary Clinton supports increasing the minimum wage while Donald Trump opposes any increase saying U.S. wages are already too high.
Read: Why it matters: The Minimum Wage https://www.thestreet.com/story/13746801/1/why-it-matters-minimum-wage.html
When I was a teenager earning the minimum wage it was worth close to $10/hour. Check out the purchasing power of the minimum wage over time. Today it is only $7.25 and life is much more expensive. There were no computers, cell phones, and related services to buy back then. Housing prices are much higher today relative to the minimum wage. 

10 Charts to explain the economy

Frustrated with your inability to save? It may not be a factor related to your character but more an effect of stagnant wages. Echeck out the Top 10 Charts of 2104 to help understand why we need an increase in the minimum wage as well as the cost of the growing wage & wealth inequality, courtesy of the Economic Policy Institute:  http://www.epi.org/publication/the-top-10-charts-of-2014/?utm_source=Economic+Policy+Institute&utm_campaign=49769a8560-Top_Charts_201412_18_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e7c5826c50-49769a8560-55890353

Why Working Two Jobs Isn’t Enough

This blog post by Amanda DeShazo links to the Department of Labor's "Work in Progress Blog." Amanda describes her life after graduating from college with student loans and trying to support herself (in a high cost of living area) on $9.84/hour and a job as a server making less than the minimum wage. Something to think about when businesses lobby against raising the minimum wage. Check out Amanda's story: http://social.dol.gov/blog/why-working-two-jobs-isnt-enough/