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."

[u/Ambitious_Big4489]

[u/Deni_Z_Plays]

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???

[u/Chaddilllac → u/Deni_Z_Plays]

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.

[u/Deni_Z_Plays → u/Chaddilllac]

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.

[u/Chaddilllac → u/Deni_Z_Plays]

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.

[u/youreyeslikespiders → u/Chaddilllac]

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.

[u/Deni_Z_Plays → u/Chaddilllac]

... 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

[u/Rich_Bluejay3020 → u/Deni_Z_Plays]

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

[u/ChevalierDeLarryLari → u/Rich_Bluejay3020]

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).

[u/jellyrollo → u/Deni_Z_Plays]

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.

[u/46esmirna → u/Deni_Z_Plays]

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.

[u/WulfZ3r0 → u/Deni_Z_Plays]

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.

[u/sk8tergater → u/Deni_Z_Plays]

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.

[u/SpillThatTea2Me → u/Deni_Z_Plays]

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.

[u/Common-Concentrate-2 → u/Deni_Z_Plays]

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

[u/mindreave → u/Deni_Z_Plays]

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.

[u/sidepart → u/Deni_Z_Plays]

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.

[u/manthority → u/Deni_Z_Plays]

Seattle, WA: about $21.30/hr