In 2025, the federal minimum wage is officially a “poverty wage.” The annual earnings of a single adult working full-time, year-round at $7.25 an hour now fall below the poverty threshold of $15,650 (established by the Department of Health and Human Services guidelines). The limitations of how the federal government calculates poverty understate how far the minimum wage is from economic security for workers and their families.
You see poor people and your first thought is how stupid they must be.
Thank you.
I wrote mental capacity because stress, irregular schedules, two jobs and all the other stuff drain energy and trap even clever people. Intelligence is only part of the problem.
My point is that they are not stupid but helpless. Usually I argue that there shouldn’t be minimum wage and that people have to organize to earn more, but I can see that it makes sense for that group.
Still, as we can see, relying on others is not sustainable. Minimum wage workers have to find a way to rise their wages on their own.
Shocker, that.
It’s the wrong side to tackle the problem.
Wages can be risen with an increased demand for workers. How? That is the relevant question that leads to the right answers. Minimum wage is a distraction.
I know. Workers having enough to live on instead of corporations and billionaires hoarding it all is a problem, huh?
Please don’t ignore my second paragraph.
Your second paragraph is an admission that you have no better ideas but want to abandon minimum wage anyway. That’s basically an admission that you don’t want people to be able to earn a living.
Seems like you don’t know this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_army_of_labour
I think I point out the obstacle to people making a living. There is no easy answer. Rising minumum wage sounds easy but as I wrote, it is a distraction.
“Let the corporations exploit people” is a pretty easy answer. It requires no effort and you don’t have to waste time supporting the interests of those unwashed mental deficients you don’t want to earn a living.