It is the same here in Britain. Our governments have been subsidising corporation’s poverty wages with top ups via a benefit called Universal Credit. Even our healthcare workers have seen their wages stagnate over the last 15 years and resident doctors earn £18.80 an hour which is pennies given the responsibilities they have. It makes no economic sense - unless you are the owner of the company and increasing wages would eat into your bottom line.
Thank you. We've had $15 an hour in Seattle for some time, may be nearly $20 now.
But on top of the slave wages federal minimum $7.25 being so low, I read that $3 an our in 1970 when I was pumping gas for 28 cents a gallon part time.
Do you know what that $3 an hour would be worth today if it kept up with cost of living?
$23.50 an hour. That should be our minimum wage. And $30 an hour is more like a progressive wage.
Next up understand that wages are a form of theft, as workers create all the wealth in society.
Inflation is a working class pay cut that the rich don't have to demand.
And debt is used successfully to suppress political dissent. Many of us -- even growing small businesses and so called self employed get so locked in to mortgage, credit card, car payments, school and medical debt that we can't look up to say anything about our country's political direction.
The 2025 Federal Poverty Level (FPL) for a single-person household in the 48 contiguous states and D.C. is $15,650
The annual income for a full-time employee earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is $15,080
It makes absolutely no sense that someone holding a fulltime job qualify for, for example medicaid and medicare. The government is literally paying the price for not raising the minimum federal wage. And if they for example also have work requirements, that means someone now will have to work 2 jobs.
Exploiting the workers so the owners can get richer faster than ever before! What a concept. What a reality actually. The world needs Socialism of one form or another and NO, you "red under the bed" morons, it isn't communism! It's caring for everybody regardless of their status in life. It's sharing the wealth. Bosses of companies in the past, long long ago, realised that their success depended on their workers. If they made money, they shared it, in the way of raising their wages. It kept workers happy and Healthy and engaged. It also kept them, dare I say it, loyal to them! If the company succeeded then so did the employees. Basic intelligence should tell you that. Right now it doesn't work that way. If you don't produce more product than usual for the same pay they let you go. Then of course they have to train another worker who NEEDS a job and will do it for peanuts. That's not even Capitalism, it's GREED!
Too True. I just wish they'd learned that lesson before they made their first big bucks! After that they became misers. IT'S ALL MINE, GOD DAMN YOU, IT'S ALL MINE!
Our local Walmart in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico (aka Eddington--we played the role of that town in the movie) has raised hourly wages to $15.00 an hour. The local online paper says that makes it the default minimum for the whole town. There are not a lot of large chains here, mostly small, locally-owned businesses. The statewide minimum wage is $12.00 an hour, so no one has been working for $7.25. It would be better if the minimum wage was higher nationally, because how often is Walmart going to take the lead? It's also a solar-powered Walmart, and I don't see that becoming a national trend.
I have been retired for 20+ years, About 10 years prior to my retirement a progressive politician was elected to be our first ever progressive provincial premier. One of his first actions was to announce a program to establish pay equity for provincial and municipal employees and within the year we were working with consultants, laboring over questionnaires, sitting on committees to establish definitions and norms and finally, choosing representatives to sit on review panels to look at every single employee's work experience declaration and agree on recommendations for moving that employee into the appropriate wage classification. Initially male employees objected to being compared to female employees but in the final analysis they realized they were being sorted into a gender neutral wage category and many of the males received upgrades as did most of the females.. I believe I may have been the employee who benefited the most as I was the director of a public service dominated by females, and our wage structure was systemically downgraded compared to the other municipal employees. My upgrade of more than a third of my existing wage per year was so "extreme" the municipality had to spread it out over 2 budget years.. For the first time in my working life I stopped living from paycheck to paycheck, managed to start saving money and because of the upgrade, when I retired both my federal pension and my workplace pension, based on the wage levels of my last 5 years of employment was one I could live on.
As for our progressive premier, he was ousted on a non confidence vote before he completed his first term of office and was succeeded by an old school, conservative with dubious ties to big money who did everything in his power to reverse his predecessors work. The one thing he could not do was to reverse the pay equity process. It included provisions for the regular updating of pay scales, based on cost of living and any move he might have made to downgrade the wage structures would have led to province wide walkouts..
The ousted premier went on to better employment in various levels of government and is now considered an elder statesman.
It is always a matter of political integrity and will to achieve substantive socio-economic equity. Even though the premier's initiative applied only to provincial and municipal employees, its revolutionary effect rolled down hill so that private employers had to compete with the provincial pay scales, AND they had to grudgingly adapt to a general acceptance of gender equity in wages. They have not entirely accepted or adapted to this norm but there are still tribunals which adjudicate on gross discrimination in pay scales. Backsliding is still a problem but one that can be resolved with enough persistence. ( Apologies for the length of this comment.) $7.25 per hour is close kin to slave wages.
In Article 2, the 57% estimation of minimum wage victims working full time looks suspiciously low, and doesn't account for those forced to work more than full time to meet expenses. That detail is probably harder to parse from the available stats.
This definitely needs to be a focus of action approaching the midterms next year. I will make sure that my congressional rep and both senators, all dems, are onboard.
WE KEEP ELECTING THE WRONG PEOPLE. In Seattle, the minimum wage is $20.76 per hour as of January 1, 2025. This is the reason: A notable female Democratic Socialist in Washington state is Kshama Sawant, a former Seattle City Councilmember. She is known for her advocacy for affordable housing, workers' rights, and social justice issues. VOTE MAMDANI if you live in NY!
It is the same here in Britain. Our governments have been subsidising corporation’s poverty wages with top ups via a benefit called Universal Credit. Even our healthcare workers have seen their wages stagnate over the last 15 years and resident doctors earn £18.80 an hour which is pennies given the responsibilities they have. It makes no economic sense - unless you are the owner of the company and increasing wages would eat into your bottom line.
I pay the person who helps me with yard work $25 an hour. It’s hard, dirty work that I do myself but can no longer do alone. It’s worth it 👹
the middle class is being utterly decimated.
https://youtu.be/wN2ZOAXshU0?si=RQ2xBMYECWFvHk-4
Well said, sir.
I’ve been explaining the solution for decades. Limit Congressional pay to minimum wage and medicare. Want to see all boats rise?
Thank you. We've had $15 an hour in Seattle for some time, may be nearly $20 now.
But on top of the slave wages federal minimum $7.25 being so low, I read that $3 an our in 1970 when I was pumping gas for 28 cents a gallon part time.
Do you know what that $3 an hour would be worth today if it kept up with cost of living?
$23.50 an hour. That should be our minimum wage. And $30 an hour is more like a progressive wage.
Next up understand that wages are a form of theft, as workers create all the wealth in society.
Inflation is a working class pay cut that the rich don't have to demand.
And debt is used successfully to suppress political dissent. Many of us -- even growing small businesses and so called self employed get so locked in to mortgage, credit card, car payments, school and medical debt that we can't look up to say anything about our country's political direction.
The 2025 Federal Poverty Level (FPL) for a single-person household in the 48 contiguous states and D.C. is $15,650
The annual income for a full-time employee earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is $15,080
It makes absolutely no sense that someone holding a fulltime job qualify for, for example medicaid and medicare. The government is literally paying the price for not raising the minimum federal wage. And if they for example also have work requirements, that means someone now will have to work 2 jobs.
And in addition they can't even afford housing.
Micro-Penis…the Southpark sobriquet for DJT…
Exploiting the workers so the owners can get richer faster than ever before! What a concept. What a reality actually. The world needs Socialism of one form or another and NO, you "red under the bed" morons, it isn't communism! It's caring for everybody regardless of their status in life. It's sharing the wealth. Bosses of companies in the past, long long ago, realised that their success depended on their workers. If they made money, they shared it, in the way of raising their wages. It kept workers happy and Healthy and engaged. It also kept them, dare I say it, loyal to them! If the company succeeded then so did the employees. Basic intelligence should tell you that. Right now it doesn't work that way. If you don't produce more product than usual for the same pay they let you go. Then of course they have to train another worker who NEEDS a job and will do it for peanuts. That's not even Capitalism, it's GREED!
“Capitalism is the economic expression of the emotion of greed” - Jstn Green
Too True. I just wish they'd learned that lesson before they made their first big bucks! After that they became misers. IT'S ALL MINE, GOD DAMN YOU, IT'S ALL MINE!
Right On!
Our local Walmart in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico (aka Eddington--we played the role of that town in the movie) has raised hourly wages to $15.00 an hour. The local online paper says that makes it the default minimum for the whole town. There are not a lot of large chains here, mostly small, locally-owned businesses. The statewide minimum wage is $12.00 an hour, so no one has been working for $7.25. It would be better if the minimum wage was higher nationally, because how often is Walmart going to take the lead? It's also a solar-powered Walmart, and I don't see that becoming a national trend.
I have been retired for 20+ years, About 10 years prior to my retirement a progressive politician was elected to be our first ever progressive provincial premier. One of his first actions was to announce a program to establish pay equity for provincial and municipal employees and within the year we were working with consultants, laboring over questionnaires, sitting on committees to establish definitions and norms and finally, choosing representatives to sit on review panels to look at every single employee's work experience declaration and agree on recommendations for moving that employee into the appropriate wage classification. Initially male employees objected to being compared to female employees but in the final analysis they realized they were being sorted into a gender neutral wage category and many of the males received upgrades as did most of the females.. I believe I may have been the employee who benefited the most as I was the director of a public service dominated by females, and our wage structure was systemically downgraded compared to the other municipal employees. My upgrade of more than a third of my existing wage per year was so "extreme" the municipality had to spread it out over 2 budget years.. For the first time in my working life I stopped living from paycheck to paycheck, managed to start saving money and because of the upgrade, when I retired both my federal pension and my workplace pension, based on the wage levels of my last 5 years of employment was one I could live on.
As for our progressive premier, he was ousted on a non confidence vote before he completed his first term of office and was succeeded by an old school, conservative with dubious ties to big money who did everything in his power to reverse his predecessors work. The one thing he could not do was to reverse the pay equity process. It included provisions for the regular updating of pay scales, based on cost of living and any move he might have made to downgrade the wage structures would have led to province wide walkouts..
The ousted premier went on to better employment in various levels of government and is now considered an elder statesman.
It is always a matter of political integrity and will to achieve substantive socio-economic equity. Even though the premier's initiative applied only to provincial and municipal employees, its revolutionary effect rolled down hill so that private employers had to compete with the provincial pay scales, AND they had to grudgingly adapt to a general acceptance of gender equity in wages. They have not entirely accepted or adapted to this norm but there are still tribunals which adjudicate on gross discrimination in pay scales. Backsliding is still a problem but one that can be resolved with enough persistence. ( Apologies for the length of this comment.) $7.25 per hour is close kin to slave wages.
In Article 2, the 57% estimation of minimum wage victims working full time looks suspiciously low, and doesn't account for those forced to work more than full time to meet expenses. That detail is probably harder to parse from the available stats.
This definitely needs to be a focus of action approaching the midterms next year. I will make sure that my congressional rep and both senators, all dems, are onboard.
This all falls back to greed and selfishness...again...as always.
WE KEEP ELECTING THE WRONG PEOPLE. In Seattle, the minimum wage is $20.76 per hour as of January 1, 2025. This is the reason: A notable female Democratic Socialist in Washington state is Kshama Sawant, a former Seattle City Councilmember. She is known for her advocacy for affordable housing, workers' rights, and social justice issues. VOTE MAMDANI if you live in NY!