Comment by prng2021
19 hours ago
Leveled the playing field? Strides in relative wages? See the chart here under the section labeled "Inflation Adjusted Reality" and you'll see how incorrect your statements are:
https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/2025/01/0...
We still live in a country where federal minimum wage doesn't change for decades. You should also research the concept of subminimum wages and I think you'll be shocked.
If you already knew about all of the above and still think there was anything close to a leveling of the playing field, you're choosing to ignore facts.
> We still live in a country where federal minimum wage doesn't change for decades.
Very few people make minimum wage. It’s basically impossible to find a minimum wage job in my city because even the post office and fast food restaurants are paying $19/hr or more, and they advertise it on signs out front. I don’t even live in a HCOL city.
The focus on federal minimum wage has become a red herring.
I see multiple posts making your same claim and it's sad to see how many people live in a wealth bubble and haven't researched the facts at all. When I was young worked in the restaurant industry in a state that has a tipped minimum wage. The hourly pay for waiters and waitresses was and still is under $3/hr in that state. The rest of your pay is completely dependent on tips. This is the reality folks. Not the tech company that gives you free catered lunch.
This page has a table of the many states that have a shockingly low tipped minimum wage:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipped_wage
“The rest or your pay is completely dependent on tips” is not accurate. You seem to focus on the hourly rate, but you don’t seem to mention that those same people are still guaranteed Federal minimum wage if they don’t make enough tips to exceed that amount. Seems odd to not be aware of that after having “worked in the restaurant industry in a state that had a tipped wage”. Moreover, it is a Federal tipped wage, not based on a state law. State law can only require higher tipped wages or disallow such wages, but is not the law that permits them.
> haven't researched the facts at all.
I have researched the facts. The percentage of people working minimum wage jobs is around 1% as of 2023. Likely under 1% now if the trend holds: https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2023/
> When I was young…
We’re talking about wages in 2025, not when you were young.
The point is that the wage landscape has changed a lot from what you’re remembering.
> This is the reality folks. Not the tech company that gives you free catered lunch.
No, I’m not talking about salaried jobs. I’m specifically talking about hourly wage jobs
As for tipped jobs: Many efforts to eliminate tipped jobs have floundered specifically because the people in tipped jobs prefer their earnings with tips included. This is partially due to the way that tip earnings are underreported significantly on taxes when people pay in cash (untracked by computer systems) so actual tipped earnings are higher.
Regardless, looking at tipped minimum wages is very dishonest because the entire definition is that these people are also getting tips. Employers are obligated to make up any difference if their tips do not bring them up to the minimum wage.
Tipped minimum wage doesn’t literally mean someone can earn $3/hour. It’s right there in the first paragraph of that Wikipedia page you linked.
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This is putting of big 'I'm insolated in a small area of the country' as well as 'who cares this doesn't apply where I live' vibes.
The vast majority of US workers are employed in jurisdictions with minimum wages much higher than the federal limit. It's true the national law is inadequate, and there are a handful of genuinely impoverished places where that matters. But almost every metro area is at $15/hr or higher now.
Also your article is about long term trends, and has data that ends in 2022 it looks like. In point of fact real wages since the pandemic have gone up, and by a historically notable amount.
$15/hr is about $2500/mo or $30k/yr gross, which is not enough to live alone is most large cities without rent assistance. Even with a roommate sharing a 2B it cutting it close and definitely not something you can build up substantial savings with.
If wages kept up with inflation since the 70s, the minimum wage would be around $23/hr, not even accounting for increases in worker productivity.
No, Federal minimum wage was $1.60/hr from 1968-1974. That's $10.24 in 2024 dollars, or significantly less than what works expect from low wage jobs today. And 1974 was a trough, it was raised multiple times in the late 70's.
I remain frustrated at the extent to which fake info gets distributed in discussions like this. You can look this stuff up! And in fact US workers[1] are wealthier today than they ever have been.
[1] There's a distasteful caveat though: white, male US workers in 1974 were doing much better relative to their peers than the same demographic is today. But minorities and women have done really well. A lot of the concern among the very male HN set over "workers" actually turns out to be an expression of frustration over social change and not economics at all.
Great, then it should be easy to raise the Federal minimum wage.
No, because the ruling party doesn't believe in it, obviously. But in practice the bulk of the US labor market runs at a wage level determined by state and municipal wage laws and not the federal minimum. Even if you're technically in rural Texas, you can't hire anyone at $7.25 an hour because you're competing for labor that can gets jobs in Austin at $15.
In Philadelphia PA wait staff in restaurants are paid less than $3 an hour. Yes they get tips. So does the wait staff in NYC that get $15 an hour. I was told this by my daughter who worked in both places. Any discrepancy with the $ is mine.
> subminimum
What a word! That’s so Newspeak-y.