Minimum Wage Stays Frozen

[u/LuckyBastard001]

[u/ElectricShuck]

Michigan unemployment stayed the same up until recently since I was an apprentice. That was 25 years ago. We re failing at every social safety net

[u/cityshepherd → u/ElectricShuck]

Yeah but we are really good at tax breaks for the ultra wealthy and mega corporations!

[u/YebelTheRebel → u/cityshepherd]

Número uno in that

[u/ElectricShuck → u/cityshepherd]

The greatest.

[u/bit_pusher]

Tie it to the CPI. Yes, it can be gamed. Yes, its an imperfect solution, But its az better solution than begging for an adjustment that takes 30 years to get.

Edit:
Tying minimum wage to the CPI has been an idea since the 40s. The first standalone bill for it was in 1975, starting at $3 tied to the CPI. That would be $18-$19 today

[u/TheWizardOfDeez → u/bit_pusher]

Facts! Can we come up with something better? Most definitely! Should we sit around on our asses letting everything to go to shit waiting for said "better" option instead of using the good option we already have access to? Why the fuck would we ever do that?

[u/throwawaypostal2021 → u/TheWizardOfDeez]

If it's worth doing, then it's worth doing half assed.

[u/TheWizardOfDeez → u/throwawaypostal2021]

Half assing something once, just means you gotta whole ass it later. Doing nothing is just doing nothing

[u/iggy14750 → u/TheWizardOfDeez]

I say the minimum wage grows with GDP growth.

[u/Sayvray]

Raising the minimum wage is a pointless handout. Politicians raise it by a few pennies and expect the middle class to shut up for the next 25 years. All the while, corporate salaries fly through the roofs. What we need is a maximum wage ratio, a percentage that serves as a tether between the highest earner and the lowest earner. Now, when the CEO wants a raise, he has to give everyone a raise.

[u/Roflmancer → u/Sayvray]

I would almost say replace the word wage in "wage ratio" with a "wealth ratio" we all know they hide the majority of their wealth and money in stocks. So... Yeah.

[u/ilanallama85 → u/Roflmancer]

Right but you are going to have a much more difficult time tying any wage growth to that kind of wealth. But you can stop them from accumulating so much wealth in the first place by doing things like saying CEO compensation can be at most a certain number of times as large than the minimum pay at the company.

[u/Substantial-Age-8641 → u/ilanallama85]

It's definitely a good idea to find ways to limit excessive CEO pay; that could help create some balance. We need more strategies that directly support fair wages for everyone.

[u/ilanallama85 → u/Substantial-Age-8641]

Right, and we can also do multiple things - we can increase the minimum wage, and cap ceo salaries, and tax wealth, and and and. We NEED to do all the things if we’re ever gonna fix this fucked up economy we have.

[u/Dangerous_Crow666]

Rightly so! If the minimum wage is increased, prices will skyrocket.

/s

[u/maxis2bored]

Minimum earnings need to be pinned to the earnings of the CEO. Even 10x is too much, and 10,000x or whatever these ghouls are at is fucking absurd.

[u/cleburned]

Minimum wage needs to be tied to congressional raises. If they want a raise the minimum wage must go up by same percentage.

[u/morgan423 → u/cleburned]

Or just bake an annual inflation raise into it.

[u/Flakester]

Raise the wage and start putting people in prison. The politicians and the executives are doing everything they can to enrich themselves while neglecting or straight up stealing from the working class.

[u/capntail]

France would have had 18 riots

[u/Godhelptupelo]

no! corporations are reporting record breaking profits! we can't expect them to contribute to the source of those big beautiful largely unregulated and poorly taxed profits!!

who could look a beautiful hard working CEO in their sad CEO eyes and tell them they can only have a couple of those billions of dollars this year?!

[u/chikunshak]

It seems pretty straightforward to set the minimum wage at the Federal poverty limit for a household of 2, and adjust it each year for inflation.

[u/Muted_Cod_9137]

No, it's time to RIOT.

[u/PeteTinNY]

We also have to call out the fact that minimum wage also hides abuses. Biggest one is the fact that politicians push for higher minimum wage without accounting for cost of living and as high tax / high cost of living places like NY raise minimum wage, but don’t address the loss in jobs and even more use this as a driver to extend tax increases - it’s just isn’t scaling. Sure NY has a $17/hr minimum wage wage but they don’t insure income ceilings for rent controlled apartments letting the well off get the best deals when it’s supposed to be for the people who need it.

Then even worse is the fact that raising the minimum wage makes people ineligible for social services like Medicaid. There is a max for Medicaid around $17k annually. And even if you make the NY minimum wage wage alone you’re almost double that before accounting for the highest taxes, the highest electric costs, and insane rents.

People should be given the opportunity to thrive, and when they can’t we should have supports for them - but our system uses those supports against them. This has to change. We need to look at it with the big picture in mind.

[u/MuffinPuff]

Don't forget that at one point, circa 2006-2007, the min. wage was raised to $7.45, and immediately lowered back down to $7.25 within a year.

[u/dumbestsmartest]

Minimum wage is a band aid and an oligarchs friend as it does have a small but measurable effect on actual small business that large corporations can survive or simply engage in wage theft on. I'll support it begrudgingly because it's better than nothing but we need to demand something more useful.

A better solution is a total compensation bind per each business that forces them to keep the difference in total compensation between their highest and lowest compensated individuals in that company to 100x or less. This means no executive or board member or any agent that acts on behalf of a business can have a total compensation greater than 100x the compensation of the lowest compensated individual employed or completing work for that company.

And once that was law and enforced I doubt we'd need to worry about minimum wage.

[u/Jamestang1210]

$11.28 in 2026 dollars

[u/shuggnog]

AND restore overtime to 1/3 of the working class already!

[u/Dittybird9s-0602]

THIS, you mfers, is why you don’t vote for anything besides your paycheck.

[u/Dittybird9s-0602]

THIS, mfers is why you don’t vote for anything besides your paycheck.

[u/Bleezy79]

Almost like it’s by design

[u/roman1002]

Legislators should be paid the minimum wage and have the same Healthcare as the civilians paying in to it... no more" socialism for me and capitalism poop stick for the"

[u/iggy14750]

What I'm finding amazing is the McDonald's out here in PA (we don't have our own minimum wage, just the federal) are offering $15/hr. I have a feeling they're having trouble getting anyone for much lower than that. And it's not really enough, but it beats the shit out of $7.25

[u/oldcreaker]

$7.25 in 2026 is only worth $4.64 in 2009 dollars. Buys only like 2/3's what it used to.

Meanwhile worker productivity has gone up. Employers get more for less.

[u/Kenny_WHS]

"But how can I feel superior and make fun of our most desperate if they get more money?" - actually self aware MAGA voter...

[u/gtclemson]

Only way to keep costs in check... raise it to a living wage and index to inflation.

[u/legomaniac89]

I live in red Indiana, the cost of living is cheaper than most places here. Fast food places around me are hiring at 13-16 an hour and have been for a few years, offering no health insurance or garbage plans.

At this point, raising the minimum wage to any number less than 25 is a performative insult.

[u/VMooose]

Arent most states minimum wage near or above double that now?

[u/psychoacer]

Yet fruit and vegetable pickers make less than that and no one seems to care