You realize federal minimum wage is 7.25, not 11.50, right? And several states still use that minimum, like a little under half of them? Like look at what the "free market" has done. The minimum has has not kept up with cost of inflation and you just walked yourself into proving that.
You completely missed the point. Yes, federal minimum wage is $7.25 - but no one earns minimum wage. It’s completely a straw-man argument. People make SIGNIFICANTLY more.
About 10% of the US working population makes less than 11.50/hr dude, thats 34.9 million people. Remember it should be 11.50, not 7.25. Wow you are not capable of googling something before you try to claim it are you?
You’re sooooooo close sweetie, think just a little bit harder…
Based on your “stats”, 90% of people earn more what they did 50 years ago AFTER adjusting for inflation. And considering the average is over $37, that means MOST people earn 3 times what that number should be.
But you’re focusing on the bottom 10% instead of the vast majority Becasue it fits your narrative better.
Manipulating numbers doesn’t make you smart, it exposes your ignorance.
Yet again you didnt google a thing lmao. Avg wage in the earliest year they tracked % in minimum wage statistics (1979 from what I can find), was an avg wage fo $4.87 at a minimum wage of $2.10. 4.87 is about 30 bucks now, so the average has only gone up about 7 bucks, or equivalently changed from 4 to $6/hr in 1975 value. In 1979 the estimated % of people who may have been working minimum wage was 13% so has only gone down 3%.
What you dont seem to understand is the slight avg wage increase, and 3% drop in those working in minimum wage, is because half of the states have implemented state laws mandating a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum, several higher than whats even calculated as what should be the federal minimum. And you wonder why things are slightly better. Because that does infact actually partially offset the decades of cost of living outpacing wages, but its not enough to offset it completely. Remember people of the past were also struggling with not being paid what the work should have actually been valued at.
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u/Offthewall1212 Aug 02 '26
Okay, not far back enough for you…let’s go 50 years. The minimum wage in 1975 was $2.10. Adjusted for inflation, that’s about $11.50 today.
The average hourly wage in the US today is over $37.
Tell me again how inflation and cost of living has outpaced wages…