Comment by Aurornis
5 months ago
> 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.
When you say the wage landscape has changed, yep you're right. It's continuing to get worse:
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-...
As for states with a tipped minimum wage, let me ask you a math problem. Imagine you work at a restaurant and people tip 15-20% per table regardless of the state you work in. Would you make more money each day if your base wage was $3/hr like the tipped minimum wage in Pennsylvania or $16/hr like in California?
If a dish at a restaurant quadruples in price, there will be fewer customers to order it - a LOT fewer, and probably enough to kill the business. The minimum wage is not a magical tool that causes money to appear in working class pockets.
Yes, tipped workers would probably make less money with a higher minimum wage under this system. The "probably" is actually irrelevant - people working tipped jobs very clearly don't want to lose tips and will resist attempts to straighten out the system.
I also cannot help but notice that your article is from the very start of 2020, and the vast majority of inequality reduction has happened after COVID. Perhaps your take would make more sense if you relied on more recent data.
Why not raise it to $50/hr? While we're printing money without side effects we might as well go big.
It's difficult to believe there are (so many) countries in this world who somehow have this under control, I mean the link between minimum wage and a certain level of living safety.