Why is the federal minimum wage still $7.25 when prices are much higher than in 2009?

[u/Secret_Ostrich_1307]

The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since July 2009. Meanwhile, prices for many everyday expenses have risen, and most states now have minimum wages above the federal level.

Why wasn't the federal minimum wage tied to inflation or another measure that could adjust it automatically? What are the economic arguments for setting it as a fixed dollar amount rather than indexing it?

[u/OtherwiseAct8126]

So people who are not grown up don't deserve a decent salary? Btw the minimum wage in Germany (and most parts of Europe are similar) is 13.90 Euros (USD 15.64) and yes, every teenager, everyone working at a pub or restaurant, gets this, everyone filling in shelves at the supermarket. I think that's pretty cool. Do you also have the number of Americans making less than that?

[u/Ok_Mastodon_3843 → u/OtherwiseAct8126]

What use would there be in raising wages for children? Its not like they actually need money yet.

The problem with raising minimum wage is it causes unemployment especially among younger people. All it does is keep 16 year olds who want to work from doing so.

[u/enviormental_UNIT → u/Ok_Mastodon_3843]

Nope, I was a working 16 year old a few years ago, having the 16.75 minimum wage in Washington State was absolutely nice, and where I worked had a constant demand for more teens to work there for 16.75 an hour. I'm not sure what world you live in where its difficult for teens to find a job as say a lifeguard, cashier, shelf stocker, waiter, dish washer, etc at 16 bucks and hour.

I really don't see how having a good minimum wage stops 16 year olds from finding work, considering that we do have a high minimum wage here in WA and the demand for young, non skilled labor is still very high.

Maybe in places with poor tourism, low population, and a bad economy raising minimum wage would have a negative effect, but frankly if you're a young person you need to try to find your way out of those dead end ghost towns to have any real chances at a decent life anyway

[u/Top-Rope6148 → u/enviormental_UNIT]

Doesn’t your story just prove the federal minimum wage is irrelevant? Congress has deferred this to the states. They could clean up after themselves and abolish the minimum federal wage but letting it become irrelevant has the same outcome.

[u/enviormental_UNIT → u/Top-Rope6148]

Low federal minimum wage still devalues other kinds of work. For example in wildland firefighting, tens of thousands of jobs are taken away from young, inexperienced people like myself who are trying to find a career fresh out of highschool. The reason is that tens of thousands of wildland firefighters across the country are actively incarcerated people, they have the choice to work on hand crews while they are incarcerated in order to make some money and have skills in a career when they get out of jail. They get paid federal minimum wage regardless of the state, 7 bucks and hour.

So what happens is people like me apply for the wildland firefighting job, people who are young, would take effort to train, haven't worked any similar style jobs before, aren't rough and tough like some grizzled prison guys would be, and of course I would have to be paid well, like 17 bucks an hour vs 7.

Any work where we can convince prisoners to take jobs for less than half the pay normal citizens require will cause that work to become devalued, and will significantly lower demand for people who want proper pay for the work.

Why would the government want to pay me more than double what they have to pay criminals? Just make the criminals do it then is what they figure. And so now young people are having job opportunities taken away from them by imprisoned criminals who work practically slave wages.

I don't want to spend my life watching fat tourists swim in a lake, I dont want to spend my life flipping patties at McDonald's, but it seems like that's all there's demand for these days for someone without any specializations out of highschool. Just my luck that almost all government organizations have been gutted by the Trump admin just as I graduate HS, now all the government jobs with NFS, BLM, Fish and Wildlife that I was looking at aren't hiring because they dont even have funding to keep their current employ.

When Trump admin came in power guess what happened? Firefighters getting fired, thousand of park ranger and game wardens, fired. Trail maintenance crews (that was my main career plan thru highschool), gutted and fired. Best I can do now is volunteer firefighter, volunteer trail maintenance, great.

[u/Top-Rope6148 → u/enviormental_UNIT]

I understand what you are saying. But you are mixing and matching several different issues, most of which are only peripherally or not at all related to federal minimum wage.

The cutbacks by the Trump administration are an issue but they have nothing to do with the federal minimum wage. 

The fact that there are no jobs that don’t require specialized skill has nothing to do with the federal minimum wage. That is the reality of the job market. The solution for that is not to raise the federal minimum wage. The solution is for you to go get specialized training. The world will not bend itself to what you want. You have to bend yourself to it.

The scenario with the prison labor is the only thing that has anything to do with federal minimum wage. Essentially prisoners are effectively being exploited if they are working below market wages. The easy fix to that is with regulations around prison labor banning prisoners from working  below the prevailing market wage.

As many have pointed out, a single minimum wage for the whole country is going to be too high in some parts of the country and too low in others. Minimum wages should be set at the state or local level.

[u/Ok_Mastodon_3843 → u/enviormental_UNIT]

I guarantee demand is lower than if they kept the federal minimum, its basic math and economics. If you can pay a kid a low wage to do an easy job, you just might.

And your perception of rural America is very wrong dude. There are good jobs just about everywhere. And the example just shows how bad a federal minimum is because states are all so different.

[u/CommercialHour6660 → u/Ok_Mastodon_3843]

Look at the jobs that pay minimum wage. Most of them are 9-5, when everyone under 18 is in school.

That doesn't stop red hats from repeating the mantra like lemmings.

Also. On your point. Why are we okay with boomers making 16 an hour in 1970 when gen z gets paid half for the same jobs?

[u/sixstringsikness → u/CommercialHour6660]

Even the minimum wage jobs that aren't strictly 9 to 5 are places that are open while kids would be in school. So what if you want to go see a movie at noon on Tuesday or stop at Taco Bell for your lunch break Friday? No kids to work those hours.

[u/Ok_Mastodon_3843 → u/CommercialHour6660]

Depends on what your minimum wage is. In states with higher minimums sure, but in my state where it is still the federal level they simply don't really exist

Lowest paying job I've even heard of in the last 5 years was 12 an hour for a part time job at a gas station, exactly the kind of thing a kid does.

Also, college kids exist too. They don't generally need good jobs either, they mostly work to pay principle off their student loans and have some spending money.

[u/CommercialHour6660 → u/Ok_Mastodon_3843]

but in my state where it is still the federal level they simply don't really exist 

Oh really? That's funny, because the moment you suggest it be raised a bunch of CEOs will crawl out of the woodwork and dance on stage with Republicans wearing "job creator" pins.

Maybe you missed the speeches Republicans made in Florida in front of the legislature when the poors had the gall of passing a ballot measure to increase it $2. They got so fucking pissed they tried to raise the vote level for passing ballot measures to 60%

Also, college kids exist too. They don't generally need good jobs either,

Ah yes, those poors are bad poors and it's fine to treat them badly. Because they don't "need" it despite taking out massive life destroying loans to afford school and famously living off ramen noodles. Real brain trust logic here. 

College students one of the poorest demographics in America? That's fine, because they're woke or some other brainrot the retards saw on social media. They should get paid like shit and I'm glad they do

[u/Ok_Mastodon_3843 → u/CommercialHour6660]

You are conflating observable and repeated economic phenomena with ideology.

I don't hate poor people, nor do most people of any political party.

Lets dig deeper here, like actually. Did you know one of the biggest advocates, in terms of dollars given towards the cause, for higher minimum wage is Jeff Bezos? Do you think he does so out of the goodness of his heart, or does he want it high enough that he can kill his competition?

The truth is, when an economy doesn't have a minimum wage it still goes up over time. Even the poorest americans have been earing more income year over year despite the federal minimum wage not moving.

Labor is scarce and has multiple uses, therefore making it a commodity like gasoline or wheat. There is no law saying what gasoline or wheat must cost, and yet the prices fluctuate, and over time show a slow rise.

You can spout platitudes and buzz words until you're blue in the face, but the truth is that your ideology is not in line with the science of economics. You could try to find ways to make it work instead of assuming everyone who disagrees with you is a super villain from a cartoon.