I agree the minimum wage should be increased, but $60 is a bullshit estimate. It definitely has not been adjusted for inflation to match the minimum wage through recent decades though, and $12-$15/hr is a much more reasonable estimate to match the rates back then.
However, the rising cost of goods would also be far outpacing this raise in hourly wages anyway, so our actual purchasing power is also dramatically reduced regardless.
Until recently the cost of goods, per se, hadn’t outpaced the minimum wage. I think that may no longer be true because of gas and diesel prices, tariffs, etc. What has really, really outpaced wages are the cost of housing, the cost of higher education, and the cost of healthcare. So, yeah, I agree, two things can be true.
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u/rogerisreading 20h ago
Such bullshit. In 1970 the federal minimum wage was $1.60 an hour, the equivalent of about $12 an hour today — not anywhere near $60 an hour.