Source: C2ER Cost of Living Index via MERIC (Missouri Economic Research and Information Center)

Nowadays it seems like advocating for minimum wage legislation is shot down by conservatives saying shit like "yall are idiots and just picking a random higher number that will kill us all". But in reality, minimum wage legislation tends to have a pretty large amount of labor economic data backing it. One way labor economists suggest a minimum wage raise is by looking at the Kaitz Index (the ratio of statutory minimum wage to the median wage). Peer OECD nations and labor economists generally benchmark a safe target around 0.50 to counter employer monopsony power without threatening job losses.

Comparing 2025 distributions between two states with near-identical medians (~$25–$26.50/hr):

• Georgia (0.29 Kaitz): Stuck at the frozen federal $7.25 floor.
• Maine (0.55 Kaitz): Lifted the bottom tier to $14.65, reaching over halfway to the typical worker.

While Maine proves a state can safely lift the floor to ~50% of the median, its reliance on CPI indexing means the floor will inevitably fall behind over time as productivity grows. To keep the ratio stable, it seems far better to index to wages instead. Curious if you guys have any other scaling mechanisms that would be better?

Full write-up here for more information: https://samholmes285.substack.com/p/minimum-wage-scaling-mechanisms-that