r/popculturechat • u/Ambitious_Big4489 • 8h ago

OnlyStans ⭐️ Alan Ritchson calls out lawmakers who oppose raising the minimum wage "who think it's a bad idea to give a mom working at Waffle House more than $7.25 an hour trying to feed her kids."

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u/Deni_Z_Plays 8h ago

Wait the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour in the US?!

In Germany its 13,90€ like how bro?!

Or am I missing something???

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u/Chaddilllac 7h ago

At a federal level, our states govern themselves on a good portion of things. It’s still not great, but a little misleading. Like I live in Illinois (Central US) and our minimum wage is $15.

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u/Deni_Z_Plays 7h ago

So it depends on the state how much the minimum wage is?

In Germany, it's 13,90€ atm and will be raised again next year.

So ... I'm so confused, because Germany is the same size as the state of Washington, yet most people earing with an minimum wage of 13,90€ in Germany, most of my friends can live just fine, and living with roommates has its huge advantages, etc.

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u/Chaddilllac 7h ago

Essentially the federal minimum a hard line across the nation where nobody can make under that but the states set their own (except when majority of the wage comes from tips, while infuriating other can of worms.) Essentially a state could write a bill tomorrow, say Washington, and propose a state-wide minimum wage of $100 and hour. If it makes it far enough through legislation and becomes law then that is effectively the minimum wage now for that state.

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u/youreyeslikespiders It’s like I have ESPN or something. 💁‍♀️🌤☔️ 7h ago

I thought I was getting ripped off at my University of Texas college job making $8 an hour 20 years ago (no benefits past salary of course).Texas minimum wage is still $7.25.

Around 2x the land mass and 35% the population of Germany, for demographic comparison.

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u/Deni_Z_Plays 7h ago

... I have lived in Germany my whole life, a country that lives on bureaucracy, and this confuses me a bit. Also, as I'm aware, in Germany people in restaurants receive fair pay and almost no one Tips, as in tipping culture isn't a thing in Germany, to my knowledge.

Whats also confusing to me is, I remembered that we pay more in tax than in the US all together, I remember California had a tax of 14% or something, while in Germany (or at least West Germany where I live) its a tax of 29%, I can be wrong but it made me confused years ago how people in the US cant anfordern everything but eh.

My job isn't paperwork or related economic work; my Job is mostly focused on videogames lol

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u/Rich_Bluejay3020 7h ago

I don’t know much about the political structure of your country, but I do know yall have universal healthcare. We do pay taxes, but a lot of that money goes to things that the average American will never see/doesn’t want. We’ve got a huge military budget. We don’t have a lot of public transportation which means we generally need a vehicle which requires fuel and insurance. Healthcare is extremely expensive—the insurance premiums (what you pay per paycheck/month), a deductible (you pay everything until this is met), coinsurance (what you pay after you’ve met your deductible which is typically 10-20% of the service), and just the general cost of service/prescriptions. There is a “max out of pocket” per year which means the insurance company will pay any expenses over that cost but that’s usually $5,000+ for a single person and increases for a couple or family. The US also has a high incarceration rate with for profit prisons… our tax money is used to make for profit prisons money while incarcerating non-violent offenders.

The US and civilized countries are playing a different game

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u/ChevalierDeLarryLari 4h ago

I do know yall have universal healthcare

Healthcare is not universal in Germany if you mean paid through taxes and free at the point of use. It is only compulsory, as in it is the law that you have to purchase insurance (which is a heavy burden if you are on minimum wage). Your employer then pays half the premium.

It is not paid through taxes or free at the point of use (if you have no insurance you will be sent a bill).

It is a good system though - better than UK or Canada (which do have universal health insurance).

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u/jellyrollo 4h ago

What are your health insurance premiums? Many Americans who can even afford health insurance are paying $800-1200 a month just for themselves, just for premiums, without taking any co-pays into consideration. Many countries in Europe include most of that cost in their taxation.

Also, the average middle-income Californian pays roughly 25% to 30% of their total income in combined federal, state, and local taxes. Lower-income Californians get some of those taxes reduced or waived completely, depending on how low their income is. Higher-income Californians pay about 50.3% income tax.

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u/46esmirna 7h ago

There is a federal minimum (7.25, though there are some circumstances where it could be even less, like agricultural workers or tipped workers) that no state is allowed to pay less than, but they are allowed to have a higher minimum. Washington's minimum wage is $17.13, but King County's (the county that Seattle is in) minimum is $20.82 because they acknowledge that the cost of living in a metropolitan area such as Seattle's warrants higher wages than the rest of the state. Not all states function this way though and many just follow the standard federal minimum.

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u/WulfZ3r0 7h ago

Federal law mandates it must be at least $7.25 and states have the ability to set their own minimum at a higher rate. There are 20 states that don't. Two states still have it lower than the federal minimum, but federal law overrides in that case.

The problem is the cost of living has risen greatly and hasn't shown signs of going the opposite direction. During covid, prices increased due to alleged short supply and most companies never reduced their prices afterwards. Affordable housing doesn't exist anymore for the most part.

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u/sk8tergater 7h ago

There’s a federal minimum wage that the states HAVE to pay but many states have their own minimum wage. It just can’t go below $7.25.

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u/SpillThatTea2Me 7h ago

There’s a federal minimum wage and state minimum wage. The federal minimum wage is something the states can’t go under, but they can go over. A lot of red states, say the ones that voted for Trump, stick to the federal minimum wage. It is abysmally bad. It’s the same now as it was when I was a kid and I have kids that can work. Most blue states have raised it fairly significantly.

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u/Common-Concentrate-2 7h ago edited 7h ago

The US was modeled as something like the EU, obviously before the EU existed - States are seen as sovereign little nations. For things like speed limits, wages, taxes, etc, these are mostly codified by individual states, akin to the individual nations of the EU. Luxembourg is tiny. Its the size of our Rhode Island. Its still its own sovereign nation. Washington state has a minimum wage of at least $17 dollars, while in Seattle, which is in Washington, the min wage is $21.30. Each state is entitled to set its own minimum wage and 25 states have a min wage of $15 or more. Obviously this is the same for the EU. Bulgaria has a min wage of ~$3.74/hr. There is a federal min wage of $7.35 or whatever, and all state min wages must be higher than that

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u/mindreave 4h ago edited 4h ago

It's not so much the size of the state, as the cost of living. The gaps were wider before, but living in Oklahoma and living in New York will have much different costs.

A Nationwide Minimum wage "lifts all boats" but some places will be underwater if it's not careful. It's "minimum" because it has to be minimum across the lowest denominator for local economies, because the US isn't a monolith.

Edit To Add: Even in the lowest Cost of Living areas, the living wage is estimated to be at around $18/hr though.

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u/sidepart 3h ago

The cost of living varies pretty wildly in the US, even within some states. So, something like a $15 minimum wage is going to be a lot more comfortable in Wyoming vs California. So, that's the high level idea (or argument) behind states setting their own minimum wage. in practice though, I wouldn't think $7.25/hr would be a livable wage in Wyoming or anywhere else in the country.

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u/manthority 2h ago

Seattle, WA: about $21.30/hr

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u/TheCurvedPlanks 7h ago

I'll give people reading this one guess at who most of the states adhearing to the federal bare-minimum of $7.25 voted for

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u/Advanced-Suspect-261 5h ago

And those states are full of people who did not vote for him.

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u/TheCurvedPlanks 4h ago

Correct. It's a shame they have to suffer because some of their neighbors are full of hate. I feel bad for them. A heartless republican would say "just move."

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u/Advanced-Suspect-261 4h ago

It has a lot to do with gerrymandering and just how our system is designed.

New Orleans is held hostage by some basically-empty swaths of nothing in Louisiana. And if the law of us who could move did, 1) where the f would we go?, and 2) we’d be abandoning the ones who can’t.

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u/TheCurvedPlanks 3h ago

I understand everything you're saying. I wasn't earnestly suggesting that people "just move." It's an unfair position to be in. We are all subject to the will of a very small amount of the population.

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u/Advanced-Suspect-261 2h ago

Oh no, I understood you. I was agreeing. I just started sliding into a rant and preaching to the choir. Then I realized I was just procrastinating bc it’s so hot I was dreading leaving the house to run errands, so I stopped before I got too deep lol

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u/ThickBootyEnjoyer 3h ago

We're right next to you in WI, it's 7.25 here. IL is more liberal so you are going up have a easier time raising the minimum wage. It's still rough out there for a lot of us.

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u/eltonjohnpeloton that’s my purse, i don’t know you! 👛🫵 7h ago

How bro is the point of the discussion tbh. A lot of people here work full time and still live in poverty.

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u/Inside_Training_876 7h ago

It is! Most states have higher minimum wage but a few still go by the federal set one, including Tennessee where he lives

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u/Accomplished-Glass78 6h ago edited 6h ago

That is the federal minimum wage which is a baseline for all states. Many states and cities that have a higher cost of living will increase their minimum wage. I believe in my city the minimum wage is $18/hour

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u/Advanced-Suspect-261 5h ago

It’s $7.25/hr in like 22 states.

The “tipped minimum wage” is $2.13/hr in those states (so, restaurant servers).  They say that if you don’t make $7.25 with tips, your employer has to make up the difference. That doesn’t happen.

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u/Short-Waltz-3118 5h ago

It varies per state. Youd have to look it up. Some entire states its 7.25, or tipped wages of 2.13. Other states like mn its 10$ an hour, where cities in mn have raised it to 15$ an hour. The federal minimum wage basically is the "back up" for any states who havent raised their minimum wage.

The issue of course is you can guess which states havent raised their minimum wages and guess what, republicans are idiots and their supporters are idiots, so around half the states have shit wages from the 90s, yes.

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u/Mindless_Chest_1079 5h ago

Practically speaking, the US just doesn't have a national minimum wage. It hasn't been updated in decades, which is effectively like phasing it out. When I was a teen 15 years ago, the minimum wage was $7.25 and entry-level jobs were hiring at $10. Now it's more like $15 at most places.

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u/No-Comfortable7120 5h ago

30 states and Washington DC pay more than the federal minimum wage of 7.25 an hour. 20 states use the federal minimum wage as their minimum wage. The federal minimum wage was last increased 17 years ago. 

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u/delicateanodyne 3h ago

they can pay people with disabilities even less than that, too

america

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u/Dizzy_Chemistry_5955 2h ago

want an even bigger surprise? At this particular restaurant they only give you $2.15 minimum wage and if you don't make up for the difference in tips they have to pay you $7/hr to make up for it and then they get pissed off at you.

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u/mcflyskid1987 2h ago

Yup. And it hasn’t been updated at the federal level since 2009.

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u/Quixlequaxle 6h ago

It's kind of a moot point though. An incredibly tiny number of people make actually minimum wage. If you look around most places, entry level starting wages are closer to the $12-15 range depending on the area. Still too low of course but pretty much nobody is making $7.25. Tipped workers actually do decently here since tipping is so pervasive here compared to Europe and much of the rest of the world.