Comment by ajross

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.