> This means minimum wage workers have been getting a pay cut over time.
This here is the strawman of the argument. Very few employed continuously for ten years continue to make minimum wage / don't move on to better jobs.
This here is the strawman of the argument. Very few employed continuously for ten years continue to make minimum wage / don't move on to better jobs.
The argument is that any minimum wage earner is worse off than a minimum wage earner the year prior, and the year prior, and the year prior, etc. By holding the minimum wage fixed, we are making the default decision that a minimum wage earner tomorrow should have less effective purchasing power than a minimum wage earner today.
A quick Google search says that a dollar in the year 2000 is worth half as much as a 1980 dollar. Yet, during that time, federal minimum wage went from $3.10 to $5.15, an increase of only about 66%. That means my parents had an easier time surviving off of minimum wage than I did.
How is that fair at all?