Democrats Introduce Bill To More Than Triple The Minimum Wage
1mon 20d ago by lemmy.world/u/Serinus in news from www.huffpost.com
And pin it to an inflation index maybe?
Pin it to congressional compensation.
Pin it to the sum of all campaign contributions and congretional "gifts".
Only if that includes what they make from all sources. I could see them being bribed into reducing their pay and framing it as a selfless move for bucket-crab voters. Their new owners will make the investment back as soon as employee pay gets adjusted back down.
Damn this is an amazing idea.
They would just stop increasing their comp and accept more bribes donations.
They pinned it to median income.
Tying it to the mean would be better. When the top 10% of earners are doing 50% of the spending, the median is useless.
Pin it to cost-of-living.
I feel like many "cost of living" type laws need to be pinned together. For example the 401k yearly contribution limit and tax brackets should be defined as a multiple of minimum wage and not raised automatically each year without it.
This thing is just theater. This is like asking for paleontological accuracy in a Godzilla movie. It’s an important detail in reality but not in these theatrics.
It will definitely increase inflation.
That thing that's already gone up in the last 16+ years without the minimum wage doing up once?
Multiple things can cause inflation. And inflation can raise more or less.
It's not a binary thing.
its performative for election, almost everywhere even in red states has raised the minimum wage since. remember one of the dem senators was introducing a bill about our flag, that amounts to nothing.
Moving the goal posts for someone else doesn't negate the original comment's thesis. Raising minimum wage doesn't increase inflation, because as we've seen inflation has already gone up.
Raising minimum wage (especially when tied to inflation and regional cost of living) often provides people with more spending power and work life balance. More money flows thru the economy while also allowing savings to increase. It can also cause other skilled labor jobs to see an increase in wages, and higher union attendance.
Pay people better. Don't simp for the oligarchs.
$7.25 in this red state...
When you lose your job scrounging up .20 cents for bread is easier than $10 regardless of inflation.
There are always doomsayers saying raising the minimum wage will do <insert economic doomsday opinion>. And over and over it's shown to not have that effect. What it does in improve the lives of millions of people.
What's upjohn?
Similar to updawg I’d assume.
Absolutely, but so does everything else.
They can't pass it. They don't have majority. Now watch as they win midterms and this gets forgotten completely.
I mean, why not introduce this bill during any of the 4 years Biden was in office? Because it would've been actual policy, and they don't want that. This is political virtue signaling and nothing more.
Now watch as they win midterms and this gets forgotten completely.
"We can't pass it. We don't have supermajority."
They get supermajority.
"We can't pass it. We don't have the presidency"
They win presidential elections.
"We can't just pass it. It has to be bipartisan or it's bad for democracy"
They lose midterms.
I mean, why not introduce this bill during any of the 4 years Biden was in office?
bCoS wE dOn'T hAvE tHe mAjOrItY!!
It's the usual and convenient excuse that Dems and their neoliberal fans love to use. As if not having a majority in either houses ever stopped Republicans! If the Dems are really serious as an opposition, which they aren't, then they have to make popular choices-- the kitchen table issues. And not only that, actually impeach and imprison Trump. I think America has to go under a fully fledged dictatorship for Americans to actually know when they see one; kinda like Brazil imprisoning Bolsonaro for trying to overthrow the election, and they are not letting up at all. Because Brazil suffered from decades of dictatorship. Americans did not indict and arrest Trump because they are still arguing whether or not he's a fascist.
Meanwhile Trump calls himself a fascist. Lol the country is filled with brainrot. Give them their reality tv or whatever the fuck it is my fellow Americans do all day. Sounds like a completely different language when I’m around my countrymen. Nothing going on in the head.
This is specifically an optics move because they can’t pass it. Make headlines about this and a few other progressive moves in the run up to November and gain votes from the “fell for it again” neolib crowd. Then “whoops, 1-3 democrat senators are just real sticks in the mud and won’t go for it so I guess we give up”. Then frustration from the base and they eventually kill whatever momentum because they prove that when it comes to action they almost always cave. Then the gop sweeps up and regresses as much as possible.
Lieberman, sinema, manchin, now its fetterman. who will be the next “this 1-3 person group personally stops any and all progress in America for like a decade”. The ones that give those dumb neolibs ammo, because of course the party would do so much if it wasn’t for them and you just have to vote more so that the 1-3 person group can become a 3-5 person group
Because raising the minimum wage when the economy was on the verge of collapse from COVID shut downs would have been idiotic?
So according to this there is absolutely nothing the Dems can do right now that would make you happy.
Cleansing itself from corporate corruption and zionism would be a good start.
You seem surprised that this is how losing trust works. If people don't trust you will keep your promises, then it doesn't matter what you promise them.
That being said, there are thing they can do that are not just virtue signalling.
Democrats cry minimum wage increase if they win.
Democrats cry legalized weed if they win.
Democrats cry codified Roe v Wade if they win.
Democrats cry ending the border wall if they win.
And then don't do it when they win. And then get mad that people notice they got swindled.
Republicans sell lies and promise torture, and they deliver that. Lies and torture.
Drop all support for Iran war, pivot fundraising mechanisms away from Israeli influence, use bully pulpits and media to keep Epstein in the news cycle, direct more national funds to local DSA candidates, rotate gerontocracy out of party leadership, etc...
I don't really mind them doing stuff like this too, though.
Nothing they would actually do. Correct.
Yes because they are ineffective fucking liars.
At least Republicans are honest in his much they hate citizens at home and abroad. They don't mask their true intentions of the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, and enabling fascists.
Democrats say they care until they get elected then say they need to work with the Republicans, then go hang out with them as they vote no on any bills that would inspire confirmce in the party or even system as a whole.
And then their brainwashed fans get mad when you can notice patterns of intentional failure across every single election. Because losing elections to Republicans makes them more money. Winning elections just allows them to vaguely stop some things but never actually make meaningful change.
They could stop being Republicans in blue. But that wouldn't allow them to have more money, so they never will.
Let me know when they fill any campaign promises from 2016.
A rational adult doesn’t get to be happy in 2026.
First day here?
Most people here it seems would rather be worse off so they can continue to bitch endlessly than have anything good happen.
Probably why half tell you voting is useless too even as primaries happen and Zoran is already in office doing things they should like.
That notwithstanding I'd like to see polling on the matter. Right or wrong I would suspect a majority would be against such a drastic increase making this a loser of an issue.
Sounds about right.
Maybe if the Dems actually die something good in power we'd be happier.
Edit: sarcasm hasn't been active for months and is just for this, while .world is currently using alt accounts to slander instances and bridge communities. Curious...
How DARE they Show voters what to Expect if PROGRESSIVES win a Majority!
-People who will DISAPPEAR after the Midterms!
It's a great move and these are bills that need to be introduced frequently by dems right now. When people say "Yeah, but what can they do". This. This is what they can do. Introducing these messaging bills for republicans to vote again and then grand standing on how republicans won't do anything to help the working class.
But dems must follow through. Minimum wage is the prefect example of where they should follow through. Attach it to a budget bill and when the parliamentarian says "not allowed" tell them to F off and push it through anyways. Just as the republicans have already done several times since they took control. Or blow up the filibuster. Either is an acceptable act for when dems get power. But they must deliver.
If dems operate like they did in Biden term 1 or Obama term 1, they'll be sunk in 2032.
Pretty much. I'd love to see a party actually have balls. Ever when the Dems are in the majority they just circle jerk each other.
We are fortunately seeing some of this with the gerrymandering bills. The absolute right messaging came from AOC when asked about the Virginia redistricting "We have a bill on the table to resolve this very problem but Republicans refuse to support it. If they hate this, they can feel free to vote to stop all gerrymandering".
gerrymandering likely will hurt GOP more than it helps them since they already area at the limit of doing it, and starts affect thier districts.
most of them are gop-lite dinos, like schumer, hakeem, slotkin, and a dozen others
They could do something about pedotus any fucking day they want. Any day. Yet…
I’ll believe it when I see it and maybe not even then because it’ll get struck down by the Supreme Court or something.
Good. Things. Don’t. Happen.
I'm far more interested in a wage cap. Top level earner can't earn more than 10x the lowest level earner in the company. And a it doesn't matter the amount the wage is, if it isn't also tied to inflation as we'll be back fighting this fight again in short order if it isn't. That of course is take all of this at face value, and pretending it's not just theater.
Though overall I would still prefer people rejecting the current business structures and making employee-owned businesses the new way. Go Pirate with the whole thing, everybody works for shares. Unions/Min. Wage are just compromises from realizing the true potential and pay of the working class.
The real money is made on assets, not income
I’m not an expert, but in that case, the company just splits into different sub-companies, no? The manufacturing arm would have a CEO paid in stocks and lower level workers still make nothing.
there will never be a wage cap under this current neoliberal hellscape. the entire goal of both parties is to make money for their corporate interests
They just get non-salary benefits
That's where the cap needs to be. There will always be someone capable and willing to take the job without the enormous pay packet. Executive pay is the biggest scam ever created.
No but you see if we don't offer 2 million a year AT LEAST we won't attract too talent!
It’s such a wild lie that for some reason we are all supposed to take seriously.
We all work at companies, the executives aren’t doing anything earth shattering. Most executives seem to be running the playbook of “give the customer less and charge them more to increase profits”. Wow, what innovation!
I would love for someone to be able to point out some concrete brilliant ideas that an executive actually had that went from “vague bullshit” to execution without getting worked and reworked and reworked by a bunch of normal employees until it was actually viable.
Steve Jobs made the iPhone, oh by himself, did he design the chips and write the software? Sure the vision is great, but for every iPhone there are a thousand CEOs that basically keep the lights on an already functioning company and raise the price. Oversee a rebrand. Go on the news and talk up their company.
And they’d have you believe that that’s worth 300-400x what a regular employee.
That every day they are coming in and providing more benefit than a worker does in an entire year. It’s the most obvious bullshit we’ve ever been asked to swallow
There is a value tied to the non-salary benefits. Include that in the cap.
Something something unrealized gains. I agree with you, I'm just pessimistic we'll ever see anything remotely close to this.
I'm with you on that. It will not happen
I wouldn't even hold my breath for 1000x
the "the 1%" meme is really anti-class consciousness, rich workers are workers, this individual literally forgot investors exist
Democrats pretend to want to do the right thing when they're not in power.
When they're in power, we get more than enough no votes to sink it and tonedeaf celebration of the girlboss energy of Sinema's thumbs down.
I'm only 26 and I've seen this happen at least 26 times
And it's still too low for anybody to live off of.
It would double my wages. Anything is better than nothing.
Or turn you unemployed if employment at new wage isn't feasible.
Do you really think that wages are low because higher wages would make the businesses fail? Wages are low because businesses have no incentive to raise them in an employer's market, that's it. They make higher margins and keep the difference.
Both cases are possible. Wages may be low because of surplus of working force on the market (hence no incentives to rise wages) or can be result of extremely low margins at the given industry.
There can be tens of reasons why wages are poor, and rising minimum pay solves the issue only in some cases
Of course, there will be edge cases of industries that have not improved their margins over the years. But the fact that prices follow inflation, and wages do not, is enough information to generalise that businesses are just greedy as fuck.
Most of the past history of raising minimum wage/payroll taxes/employee benefits has been immediate outcry by business groups over how all business is going to go bankrupt/the sky is falling followed by change that a year later has business chugging along mostly the same as it was prior to their catastrophizing. It's not really surprising that employees who are able to spend more, spend more.
Yes. This wont work without taxing rich properly
Can't wait for this to not go anywhere and have several dems finger-wag for the next several years saying there's nothing they can do
or get in power and immediately ignore it ala biden
When they know it won't pass, they go big. Honestly they should have gone bigger.
I hope they prove me wrong, but you won't see me holding my breath.
They know it won't pass, but they're positioning themselves to run on "affordability". Of course, if they win, they'll "try" to pass a similar bill, but it'll get watered down to "increase minimum wage to $9.50 per hour by 2035" or similar bullshit.
now you know both gop/goplite-dnc colludes with each other, they know beforehand which they will pass and which will not pass.
This is just for show and will end up going nowhere. If you think this has even a remote chance at changing the minimum wage then I have a bridge to sell you.
We live in a time where democrats do nothing but act appalled, corporations control politics, corporations keep getting bigger, consumer prices increase year after year, healthcare premiums constantly cost more and employee benefits keep getting more expensive every year. What gives you the idea corporations are going to let politicians triple minimum wage? If that happens it will have a ripple effect where higher paying job positions will want a raise because why should someone making an entry level wage be paid the same as a job position with a lot more responsibility?
Not just that but if it passed it would eat into profits. We can’t have that, think of the shareholders
Profits are already eaten up by executive bonuses and salaries.
It's regular salaries that eat into those, and that's what they're trying to protect.
most of them are gop that are not electable as a republican, so they become DINOS. schumer +13 other senators are likely the same, likewise with the house seats.
Trump white house just posted " 2 kings" and these people still trying to pass fake bills?
The people of the US need to woke up before it is too late if they want their democracy back, otherwise they can accept the new kingdom.
I am not sure what he will call it, maybe just Trump
any other bill then to solve the current crises, they are banking on the problems snowballing so they get elected over the gop. it was the same thing senator warren/kloubacher did a useless "flag lesgislation"
these people still trying to pass fake bills?
Telling voters what to expect, if voters give Democrats power, is not "fake bills". What do you want, for Democrats to not tell voters what they would pass, if given power?
Telling voters what to expect, if voters give Democrats power
After decades of lies, you'll have to excuse the skepticism of people who have been paying attention.
They will be talking about this bill being shut down by Republicans for the next 20 years. They will talk about how improper it would be to reintroduce the bill after it was voted down. If they are ever in power they will point to this failed bill whenever the min wage comes up. They know that it will never pass, that's why it's being done now.
Democrats have not had a filibuster-proof majority for almost 20 years.
Sometimes I think Americans don't know how democracy works. You can't blame a party for not passing stuff, if you don't give that party the power to pass stuff.
Democrats have not had a filibuster-proof majority for almost 20 years.
Stop using the filibuster as an excuse for democrats blocking what you want blocked. They could have ended the filibuster for good with a simple majority any time they had one.
Sometimes I think Americans don’t know how democracy works.
Sometimes I wish the genocide wing could come up with a new way to gaslight people who say things they don't want to hear.
Sometimes I think Americans don’t know how democracy works.
As not an american I am almost certain you don't know how a real democracy works. A two party system is not democratic and majority are not healthy long term, if you want proof look at the us and the uk more recently. Coalitions are common and more democratic the world over.
Uhh that would require them to try this shit when in power, which they don't do.
Democrats have not had a filibuster-proof majority for almost 20 years.
Sometimes I think Americans don’t know how democracy works. You can’t blame a party for not passing stuff, if you don’t give that party the power to pass stuff.
Wild how republicans can enact the most heinous shit then huh
Examples please?
waves hands around America
I am blaming them for only bringing this up and pushing it when Republicans are in power. Reading comprehension is hard sometimes.
We need a revolution to undo the damage of this administration. Democrats aren’t going to do shit and they’re all owned by the AIPAC Uniparty. This administration has been devastating to our future. Heads need to roll and I haven’t heard any democrats running on real accountability and a hard line against Israel
the current DNC schumer and his cohorts are there to prevent any leftward shift in voting patterns, the gop are design to ratchet everything to the right.
Thanks I guess? Maybe try stopping the fascist movement first... we can talk about empty promises later, but I ain't seen y'all push back worth a fuck. Sure as shit, I don't believe that weak sentiment if ya can't even oust a certified pedo
Maybe try stopping the fascist movement first
Hard to do when voters just handed control of all branches of government to Republicans.
Yet republicans manage to get all sorts of things done when they didn’t even have a majority.
So democrats can try harder. Democrats can remove the pedotus by any means necessary.
Pedotus tried (succeeded?) to overthrow the us government and nothing happened to him. He got reelected.
Democrats can do so so much more. As proven by republicans. Yet they don’t. Why?
Because
-
SCOTUS is corrupt, filled by Republican partisans, after voters gave Republicans the power to choose judges
-
It is way easier to block stuff, than to pass stuff. So when Republicans right now is preventing a minimum wage increase, Republicans can do that
-
"Democrats can remove the pedotus by any means necessary." - which requires a supermajority in the Senate. Whereas leaving Trump in power requires nothing. So Republicans "win".
And yet they aren't blocking anything Trump is doing...
They. Don't. Have. The. Power. To. Do. So.
Voters have not given Democrats the power to block anything. Republicans control both chambers of Congress. How is that so hard to understand?
Not having control of Congress never stopped the Republicans from throwing wrenches into things. Figure. it. out. Cheat if they have to. If this shit goes on til midterms we're never getting out of this.
Trump is governing by executive order. Hence the Democrats have to proactively pass laws to stop Trump. It is not a bill Democrats can filibuster in the Senate.
Whereas Democrats actually try to pass bills, as the system is supposed to work. And when Biden or Obama did try to use executive orders, they were often blocked by SCOTUS. Because US voters allowed Republican Presidents to stack the courts with partisans.
Also, generally Democrats are trying to build stuff. Whereas Republicans are trying to block or destroy stuff. destroying stuff is inherently easier.
Don't care. The system is fucked and they need to act accordingly. They are the opposition they need to figure something out, legal or not. Letting shit play out until midterms will fuck all of us. The Republicans stopped caring about legality years ago.
Really telling that you want them to do more and Blue MAGA gets angry at people wanting the Democrats to do anything meaningful.
Controlled opposition and it's brainwashed sycophants.
A minimum wage increase without action against the powers and institutions that can simply adjust their practices to continue to make even $25/hr unlivable is just a bigger loaf of bread at a bigger circus. For a year or two the plebs will live like kings, then the new reality will hit. Democrats will do anything to win their base, but they’ll never actually confront the system. Fight for a world where $7.25 is a livable wage instead of one where $25 is just an opportunity for the wealthy to figure out new means to extract that much more out of you while your quality of life remains the same as it was before.
Both parties are in on the whole thing, the system being rigged from the very beginning. I don't buy any of it; it's all theater.
I fully believe this now.
Losing to the worst man to ever live in modern times. Twice.
The people don’t want democrats. Democrats are the fucking block from the people to actually do anything. They are standing in our fucking way.
I fully believe that’s on purpose and I also believe the only way out of this is to let them lose so fucking hard no one can pretend anymore.
Those fucking pieces of shit backed us right up to fascism to retain power. I fucking hate those people for doing this to us.
Let them lose and let us fucking fight for the America we actually want.
Conspiracy theory nonsense
Democrats had all the leverage during the government shutdown and demanded nothing.
They had the presidency and did nothing.
But when they have no leverage they start introducing bills which they know will not pass.
Of course.
Can't do anything, but gotta look like you're doing something so they can use it for fodder in the next election
This is one of those ask for 100 so you can negotiate down to 50 kind of things isn't it? Or just a pretend attempt to look good when it's obviously rejected.
It's a pretend attempt lol
No, it phases in over a few years.
You're saying that as if it passed and will be going into effect. This will absolutely not pass if the 15 an hour that's been attempted constantly over the last decade hasn't.
Yes to both probably
More theatre? I would hope not but fuck this timeline...
Do you think this is gonna pass? I'm not sure what you expect here.
If Dems get 56% of seats, this'll likely pass. (51% isn't enough because Fetterman is nearly useless).
For some reason people here really want to focus on the few potential holdouts rather than the 50% or more of Republicans who are the real reason this won't pass.
$25 would destroy any ability for most small businesses to ever get larger or going at all.
I’m basically dying a slave holding a paintbrush in that timeline or raising prices 5x at least. $2k a month for employee health insurance. $25 an hour. Kiss literally everything that isn’t a major corp goodbye!
What needs to happen is redistributing that wealth those corps stole from us.
Small businesses die out, often times, because people can’t afford to buy their stuff. One of the most basic signs of a good economy is small amounts changing hands often. Places like Walmart dominate the field because everyone is so poor they need to worry about saving single dollars and many cannot responsibly buy from local businesses. It’s literally a business strategy for Walmart, Amazon, etc. to undercut long enough to drive out small business and then they keep their employees too poor to fight back.
You’re scared, and I get that, but it will be ok.
Small business's definitely can afford to pay 25$ an hour. If they can't, they dont deserve to be in businessm
yeah its not going to effect mom and pop shops if you are actually talking family run. It will make it more cautious in growing but if anything it will make it harder to have a business where the owner stops working. I would prefer more the thing where the highest compensation can't be over 100x the lowest but im not going to quibble about the best way to do good things over bad things.
Maybe we should do universal healthcare too. That would help them.
I'm not one of those anarchists that thinks nobody needs to work, but I think universal healthcare, an actual living minimum wage, and a 32-36 hour work week are all achievable.
I mean... Look at most other first world countries, you don't need to think, it's pretty reasonable shown it's a thing
Universal Healthcare definitely is achievable but it requires a lot of tax money.
Right now US total taxation level is ~30%. If you want EU style safety net on you, then expect 45-50%
It would be cheaper than the current insurance system.
Sure is a good thing we don't currently count healthcare costs as taxes, or that'd look a lot different. Did you know most employers spend more on your healthcare than you do?
Whatever you call it, it would be nice to have more take home pay.
How about reforming healthcare so it's both private and reasonably priced?
Because healthcare is not a kind of "market", it doesn't lend itself well to the ideals of capitalism. You aren't going to go shopping around for hospitals while you are bleeding out in the back of an ambulance.
The congressional budget office even agrees that Medicare for all will save the government money, because it will eliminate the bureaucracy put in place to fleece money out of patients.
Not sure why this is getting down voted so hard. There are a ton of small businesses that have really small margins, just think about how many didn't survive COVID. Any businesses that hire lots of low skill labourers would struggle to get off the ground.
Yeah but then it's not a good business. We could lower the minimum wage and more business plans become viable. But at some point it's like I rather that single mom stay home with the kids than work for $7 an hour. It's better for the economy and society to have people doing higher value stuff like raising kids than stickering boxes or something for minimum wage.
im fine with this kind of theater. I would prefer tax bills to recover tax dodges but im not going to nope out on this by writing it off as theater. this timeline has a lot worse things than attempts to raised the minimum wage
Yeah this is going nowhere and it's not going to flip anyone to their side. Performative bullshit.
Introduce a bill for Socialized Healthcare too!!!
These same commenters will make fun of reddit and twitter for always being cynical and rage fueled.
Most states have gone well beyond the federal wage so this would mainly just bring it to approximately the norm in most states.
$7.25 minimum wage still exist here in this state while across the river its more than $15
In my state its $15 but I haven't seen a job in my town posted in the last 8+ years for under $21 because vhcol.
The general consensus is minimum wage is whatever the grocery store is hiring at (they have had a poster at the front door for 20 years now posting what theyre hiring at. Right now its $32/$35 for overnight restocking) - every buisness owner knows theyre not going going to get any applications if they can't beat it.
Even tipped positions all pay $16+ so people can actually make rent.
Our local paper just did a story on this this morning. Only 44% of full time workers here make a living wage due to the low wages.
https://www.inquirer.com/business/living-wage-philadelphia-dayforce-work-20260429.html
Which should be a good starting place
This is just so some Democrats can claim "supported/worked for higher worker wages" during their next reelection campaign.
It should be at least $20/hr
The bill is for $25. No way it'll actually happen tho even though we desperately need it
yeah, this bill has the same chance of passing as it snowing in hell.
I can see it happening... After Trump's next Fed pick causes super inflation to bring down the debt.
in HCOL states is around that or slightly more or ready. it wont get passed because the gop isnt going to allow it since none of them support it.
This may be for show but that's more show than they were willing to show 2019-2021. Republicans were throwing out certain to fail bills constantly for at least the last 25 years. It at least throws people a marketing bone and also any that make it out of committee to a floor vote, it puts on record/something to market for/against an elected public servant. Republicans effectively steer public opinion against their own to their advantage for getting stuff passed and who they want into office. Democrats do not.
It's one way to craft a publicly recognizable party ideology that the democratic party has failed to build up these last few decades. The we're not republicans, we looks and sound more professional doesn't work. Something like this is a major improvement. If it makes it to the floor for a vote, which democrats and republicans will vote against or abstain. We should want that for potential future primary challengers and be encouraging these
its performative, the gop isnt on board with this and likely they will block it. dnc has alot of bad publicity recently, israel/gaza, inaction trump, plus ending shut downs early,,,etc.
THE gop has largely convinced thier own base that higher wages =higher prices.
they get more good publicity by raising the MEDICAID/care income cap, where you have a max income on which you can receive " recieve free healthcare" or reapplying the covid-area susidies to the ACA.
No it is not. Democrats did plenty of performative theater in the past. They even have a rotating villain cast which will always make sure there are just enough Democrat votes "betraying" the party to make Republican legislation pass.
You guys have law protected minimum wage?
Cries in Finland
Technically yes, but the federal minimum wage right now is $7.25/hr (with a few exceptions). Even full-time at this amount is poverty level in most of the country, and many places now pay more than this anyway, so it doesn't actually do much. In fact, now it seems like companies can use it as a way to suppress wages by saying look, we're offering you $12/hr, which is almost double the minimum wage! In reality, that's still insufficient to live anywhere by yourself in basically the entire country
The minimum wage has been raised twice since 1997, for a total of $2.10. The last increase was in 2009. It now stands at $7.25 an hour.
30 states have established their own Minimum Wage higher than the Federal minimum, but 20 states remain at the Federal minimum, all Red states, of course:
- Alabama (No state law)
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana (No state law)
- Mississippi (No state law)
- New Hampshire
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Oklahoma
- Pennsylvania
- South Carolina (No state law)
- Tennessee (No state law)
- Texas
- Utah
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
I make slightly more than that in East Europe, which is more or less average here. Granted, that's only the "official" job, second or freelance jobs are quite popular here. While my day job is at factory, my nighttime job is mostly around computers (my very first job was webdev)
I’m not trying to be a negative Nancy here, but I gotta say, the fact that shit like this has NEVER in my lifetime been introduced when the Democratic Party actually has control of anything is pretty fucking telling.
How can anyone survive on ~$7.80/hr? That is modern day indentured slavery.
From 1 to 3 - great!
Federal minimum wage for a non-tipped employee is $7.25. they're asking for it to be $25
Just do it on a per-State level. That way blue states can push their minimum wage up without having to worry about pandering to red states. There is a reason we are a federation if States.
I feel like some degree of mandatory minimum requirements established at the federal level that's adjusted and implemented per state would be the best case scenario. Obviously minimum wage in California or Texas simply shouldn't be the same as in Ohio or Wyoming. It really should be more reflective of cost of living of the specific location.
But also, if you leave it completely up to the states with no mandates from the federal level, enjoy seeing $7.25/hr indefinitely in places like Texas.
If that's what they want to vote for, let them vote for a low minimum wage🤷♂️
Blue States shouldn't have to be held back because Red States are too busy fighting culture wars to tackle actual problems.
What part of anything being discussed here is holding back blue states? Blue states generally have higher minimum wage. A nationwide increase of minimum wage would by and large lift red states up while doing little or nothing for many blue states lol
Imagine begging for crumbs of your own labour from the bourgeosie imperialist democratic party
Thank you! I was going crazy with every affordability discussion I heard only talking about cutting taxes and ways to lower costs here and there. Raising incomes fixes everything.
Dozen of workplace burn by the workers -> even shithead thinks to raise wages
Direct action pay cash
Was this comment written by Kevin from The Office when he wouldn't use full sentences?
you know that the whole world do not speak English right ? So you understand that we are making effort to adapt to the hegemony of yours ?
The least you can do is being respectful. Are my sentences long enough ?
Not nearly enough.
How stupid do they think we are? Oh wait, I regularly talk to people who fall for these stunts
The min wage at the national level really doesn't make sense. For some places it is too high, and for other too low. There is just no right answer at that level. It should probably just be abolished. The only problem is that some red states would use that as an opportunity to further exploit their people. So there is just no winning here.
Letting states set standards for everything creates a competitive environment that pushes for a race to the bottom. Every state feels they need to cut taxes more and more (and degrade public services), add more gambling, reduce rules for corporate behavior on pollution, etc. A federal standard levels the playing field.
That is a very good point. But then how do you account for the vast difference in cost of living across the country. There is just no single right answer for everyone.
There are large differences within states also. You just have to draw a line somewhere.
I dunno. Where ever you draw that line will be wrong for more than half the country. Maybe the feds could at least set a min wage by state of residence based on cost of living data or something. Though it should probably be even more fine grained than that. Maybe set by county the business is in or something. Why have the computers, and the data to do that kind of thing.
There is just no single right answer for everyone.
Yes there is, its above 7.40 and likely about 15 to 20. To give an example in Canada the federal min wage is $15 loonies an hour, and like your states the cost of living varies wildly between provinces and territories. To help (its a lack luster help) we do generally give tax breaks and sometimes money to the more rural areas to off set the higher cost of goods (you guys do the same in Alaska fyi). To drag out such a silly, tired and dusty line of reasoning in light of the us not being special is a choice.
How do you say that is the right answer? Someone living in NYC vs someone living in rural Iowa need different mins. 15 to 20 sounds about right for nyc. But in rural iowa that would be unreasonably high.
Someone living in Vancouver vs someone living in Milo Alberta could also use different mins. But its a min and no that's not high, americans are just too used to exploiting people.
I don't really know what it costs to live in Iowa. But if 15 to 20 is what is needed there, then it's way too low for nyc. And since the population is concentrated in cities, that means it's not helping most of the people who need it. There must be a better way.
Yeah, market forces. The min is just that, a min. If someone can not live in a city with a wage under X then if places don't offer at least X they should fail, but they don't since we prop up the current system.
Yeah, "they" like to claim market forces as well as supply and demand will balance things. But in so many cases, the person making the monetary decisions isn't the person impacted by them. Like big box stores... if a location can't hire enough people at the rate the central office wants, they tell the location to make due. They aren't personally impacted by the shortage, all they see is numbers. Software. The decision maker on what to buy is almost never the user of the software. So the software is designed to look good to the decision maker, not to work well for the user. Market forces just doesn't work at this scale.
This is garbage. It appeals to a far left constituency while alienating the moderate left people who are just trying to make their small businesses work. There has got to be a compromise line between these two groups. This is not how you win elections.
A livable wage is now considered a far left issue? Jesus christ things have gotten bad.
According to the far right, it's a far left issue. According to everyone else, it's a center to center-right issue. There is no far-left in the US.
I’m sorry you’ve just now noticed. May want to take a look at Nov 2024-present.
Left is literally labor. Like, yea, raising minimum wage over triple is definitely a far left issue.
A livable wage increasing 3x is going to raise eyebrows...
I'm not in US, but 3x people's salary isn't something feasible, you don't just increase the lowest, as they now leaped past everyone else. EVERYONE will need increases.
So now everything goes up in cost, you just killed the export economy and those who are out of a job? Get turbo fucked because benefits lag behind at best of times, but now they got higher prices to deal with with the money they already don't have.
Oh and people go and buy out the housing market before it rockets to the moon.
This is a lemmy comment, figures are vague by design. It is a centrist (read left if you're American) safe space, hence I'm here, but we don't live in lala land...
This is garbage.
This is still less than some areas' true living wage in this country. Look up essentially any city here, and you'll find its living wage is often much higher than both the current minimum wage, the most frequently proposed $15 increase, and this new $25 increase.
Minimum wages should be living wages, not the bare minimum to not starve unless you even temporarily lose your job and are now deemed ineligible to live.
It appeals to a far left constituency
74% of Democrats (center-right), and 55% of voters overall (left, center, and right combined) support a minimum wage increase to $25/hour. This is not a fringe idea.
while alienating the moderate left people who are just trying to make their small businesses work.
When minimum wages rise, small businesses find it easier and cheaper to hire new employees, face less turnover, and are able to charge a high enough price to cover the newly increased cost without inflating prices faster than the minimum wage.
Raising the minimum wage for everyone benefits individuals, small businesses, and the economy at large. It even reduces the high school dropout rate!
This is not how you win elections.
Pushing a broadly popular issue relating to affordability at a time when economic uncertainty is around the highest it's ever been is an incredibly good strategy to win elections.
You brought receipts. Thank you.
That's a lot of words for "I'm selfish and don't understand how people on low incomes tend to spend more money proportionately, thereby stimulating small businesses"
Ehhhhhhhhhhh in my experience low income does not support small business.
Maybe they would change habits if they made more but it’s unlikely. Habits change more by necessity.
In reality we’d all see healthcare become $5k a month and car insurance at $500.
If your business model doesnt allow payment of a living wage then your business deserves to fail
We should start with Walmart not small business.
If your small business fails because you can't pay you employees enough to live off of, that's a problem with your business model. The problem with small businesses is that the people starting them have no idea what they're doing.
Enjoy your Walmarts on every corner.
I live in a country with reasonable minimum wage and small businesses are doing fine. My city (5 million people) only has 5 Walmart's while while American cities with half the population (I'll use Houston for example) have 24. Low wages are integral to Walmart's business model, not in opposition to it.
I might be wrong but I don’t think this actually pleases “far left” — far left prefers maximums / taxing billionaires rather than just raising the minimum without any regulations to keep costs from rising indefinitely
Pretty sure the far left doesn’t believe in currency or private ownership of goods at all. The far left are communists and anarchists who eschew capitalism entirely. The policies you’ve described are centre-left. The Overton Window in the US has shifted so far to the right that they don’t actually know what far left even means anymore.
Noted - good point! I guess I meant ‘further left’ than whatever “far left “ boogeyman the original commenter had in their head.
The moderate left business owners? WTF?
Raising the minimum wage is far left?
What even is this?
I’m far left with a small business.
Yea this $25 an hour would ensure I’d remain a slave and the few jobs I can afford to offer (which are actually fun and in the arts) would all just be me until i keeled over and died paintbrush in hand.
I don’t get fucking paid $25 an hour right now and I pay myself.
Or i could close up shop and work at Walmart like everyone else. Then no one will have anyone or anything to ever see again in America that’s not a major public corp.
The answer is to redistribute that wealth those corps stole from us.
If you can't run a business that pays you $25 an hour, it's not a viable business. Work a job that pays and do the art you enjoy for the love of it.
This is already a compromise. The far left answer to small business owners is to expropriate your capital and force you to get a job like everyone else.
Besides that, workers outnumber business owners 170.7 million to 36.2 million. You're a really tiny voting bloc and most of you vote Republican in every election anyway, so who cares what you think?
Enjoy your Walmarts on every corner.
One of the biggest problems with Walmart is how little they pay their workers.
Forcing them to pay $25/hr seems like a pretty good deal.
Yay! Public masturbation instead of actually fucking doing something. What happened to impeaching the shit stain that keeps desecrating the constitution?
What happened to impeaching the shit stain that keeps desecrating the constitution?
A basic understanding of arithmetic and calendars...
Who was saying wed impeach before midterms?
Trying to do that, wouldn't change anyone's mind.
Trying to do this, something most Americans want, forces Republicans and neoliberals to go against it, which hurts them in primaries/mid terms.
If you don't understand why people are doing something, just ask bro.
That's how we learn.
How many decades of their bullshit until you realize you’re being played?
No... a basic understanding that they're bought and paid for by the same billionaires and always follow their masters' orders. There is no chance in hell that this will happen at all and meanwhile they're changing the subject from Epstein and Iran to this. Fucking shills... every single one of them.
There is no chance in hell that this will happen at all
I know...
I just explained why it still matters...
There is no chance in hell that this will happen at all and meanwhile they’re changing the subject from Epstein and Iran to this
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In your mind people can care about more than one issue, but no more than two at once?
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As we've both said, Dems don't have the votes. And I think we agree that not all Dems would vote with us if it came to it... So what do you think they can do about the other 2 issues? Wouldn't we want to highlight as many of Republicans failures as possible in case not all voters agree about the other two?
They complain that Dems don't do anything. We say they don't have the votes.
Dems try to do something. They complain that Dems tried to do something.
It's almost like these people don't really care what the Dems do or don't do. It's almost like their goal isn't to improve the Democratic party, but that they have some other agenda.
I mean...
For the last 30-50 years, "the dnc is working against us" was valid...
It's just at no point does anyone teach people how our political system works. People know enough to know it's stupid, but if it was possible to change the system from the outside, Bernie would have tried it by now. Or any of the people that keep trying would have succeeded by now.
The only way to beat the system, is thru the system.
Right now we have a level playing field at the party level, that's fucking huge.
And if that lets a progressive to the general and into the oval, they get to name the next DMC chair.
The reason there's such a big push against the DNC, is if progressives grab the reigns, we'll hold them for decades. A constant cycle where progressives keep winning and keep controlling the party, decades (if ever) for Republicans to recover post trump.
We're so fucking close. And as much as people point out the bad parts of history repeating, we're coming up on FDR. And that's the real reason the rich are scared.
Last time democrats had the majority, they were positively gleeful about blocking a wage increase.
Why should anyone trust a party that doesn't keep its promises?
You're right, you should definitely vote for the other party. They've proven time and time again just how good they are for the world.
We've been through this. Stop interpreting criticism you would prefer to ignore as support for republicans.
If you don't support one, by default you support the other.
How convenient for the genocide wing that all criticism is trump support.
Great way to get out of bein' criticized.
They can get off of their collective fucking asses - every single one of them - and not say anything about anything except Epstein and the Iran war every single day, 24 hours per day and force the narrative to be that Trump is a pedophile and treason-weasel who should be treated as such. They could do almost anything that isn't another version of sucking his balls.
4 hours per day and force the narrative to be that Trump is a pedophile and treason-weasel who should be treated as such
We tried that, it's not enough...
Dem voters need something to vote for.
Even the DNC realized this over a year ago man...
They could do almost anything that isn’t another version of sucking his balls.
I mean, this isn't sucking his balls...
So we're cool here now, right?
You see the value in this?
It's "not a top priority".
It wouldn't be a major priority for me, either.
Impeachment is a formal accusation of wrongdoing. It doesn't remove the President from office.
To remove a President, first you need to impeach him (simple majority in the House) and then you need to pass a vote to convict in the Senate, which requires a two-thirds supermajority.
Trump was already impeached twice. On neither occasion was he convicted.
As things stand, that Senate vote to convict will almost certainly fail. That will also almost certainly be the case even after the midterms.
So the impeachment would act as something of a formal condemnation, but unless you're really into symbolic gestures, it's probably not the most-important thing. It doesn't alter the balance of power or do much to Trump.
What having a House majority will do is let the Democrats conduct investigations, and they probably should do that. If the Trump administration has been doing sufficiently-sketchy things that previously hadn't been turned up and they turn it up, that might get enough votes in the Senate. But absent new information, impeachment isn't going to have much real impact.
Lifting millions out of poverty wages isn't "masturbation". Wealth inequality can be traced to several problems within the country, and can be directly linked to several factors leading to the election of Trump.
It's never going to happen... not even if we had a Democrat president.
a DNC candidate would likely be someone like newsom, they will never budge on israel, and taxing billionaires, or healthcare.
I hold no faith in the political process, so I'd be inclined to agree. The only way to ensure a living wage is to organize a union. We can't wait for crumbs from the ruling class.
It would be nice if they weren't lying about wanting to do it, too.
What? Pretending like you are going to lift millions out of poverty sure is masturbatory. What road map do you envision that would allow this to happen. Do you think that they think they can pass this with a fascist regime in power? They know damn well it's just fanfare.
What road map do you envision
I envision workers using this news as an organizing tool to form unions and bargain for higher than $25/hr, regardless of whether it happens.
In fact, the impeachment resolutions have already been filed, and they are going to get just as far as this bill. So I don't understand your complaint. For example.
He has been impeached twice and it failed both times. We don't have any more votes than we did the last two times, so we would just be banging our heads against a brick wall.
They secretly like that shit stain.
It’s the same party? Democrans and Republicrats.