Why hasn’t the federal minimum wage risen since 2009, and should it now?

[msc545]

Federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour for covered nonexempt employees, a rate that has been in place since July 24, 2009. Why hasn't it been raised?

[goaded]

Just for context:

"EIon Musk’s Wealth
2009: $0.6B
2026: $984B

Jeff Bezos’s Wealth
2009: $6B
2026: $370B

Mark Zuckerberg’s Wealth
2009: $0.6B
2026: $256B

Federal Minimum Wage
2009: $7.25
2023: $7.25

Billionaire tax rate: 8.2%
Worker tax rate: 13%

Pay workers.
Tax & Abolish Billionaires.
Save our economy & country."

https://mastodon.social/@QasimRashid/117322091232765852

[Taranis_Thunor]

The commies all are jealous these people have more earned more wealth then you, aren't you? I'm poor, why don't you share your wealth with me? 🪎
Thing is I bet you didn't look to find how much money they actually owned and went straight for how much they own in assets.
People like Elon Musk needs to own multi-billions to establish his dream space programs & work with AI. Jeff Bezos needs to run a business Empire which has effectively integrated most of the internet's market to his platform.
Without hundreds of billions in assets to them would be like if a farmer didn't own a lot of money in assets... That'd be barely a farmer all.
Where do we draw the line on what makes you rich?
Also the minimum wage argument is just an argument for more planned economy socialism that stops poor people like me from starting a business because I have a dumb leftist regulation dictating to me how much I should pay my employees.
So you're locking the very act of Capitalism itself to just the rich so the rest of us can carry on working for them & contributing to their government supported monopolies. What you want sounds a lot like the economy of Italian Fascism to me, which itself was started as a Marxist movement.

[DryGermanGuy]

"Slaves are made in such ways!!!"

- William Wallace, Braveheart

[Kelly6]

@DryGermanGuy are you done yet? 😆

[DryGermanGuy]

NEVARRR! ✊😤

[Kelly6]

@DryGermanGuy wrong answer lol

- I'm not done yet. 😆

[Sevenpointfive]

i've explained this many times among the years. we need a minimum wage that was around 9/hr. for kids and college kids. those jobs were never meant to pay out 20/hr. the people that try to make a living because they don't further their education should be moved up. it's not a whole lot more but it's still not supposed to be. supervisors are close but assistant manager and manager should be the only ones there that can live off their wage/salary. that's how it's supposed to be. that's how you have illegals making fair pay.

you don't raise the wage so kids and adults have to compete. that's a fuck you to those adults entire lives. they fought all their lives to move up to make the same as a 16 yr/old kid. it's pretty sad but that's a very common story.

[goaded]

"assistant manager and manager should be the only ones there that can live off their wage/salary"
So everybody else should go homeless or starve?

[Sevenpointfive]

@goaded no. they shouldn't use those jobs for paying their rent. that's supplemental income not a real job. that's a kids job. it's how they learn to manage money, grow skills, they aren't hard jobs and they aren't worth a living wage. it collapses the system. businesses can't survive. which is why tipping is so crazy here. adults have done it and survived on handouts and that's going away. but a kid can go be a waiter and make an adults salary doing barely anything. it's a stupid system. tipping should not be mandatory to survive.

[goaded]

If a business can't survive paying a living wage to its employees, it shouldn't survive.

I don't understand what you mean by "tipping is so crazy here" or "adults have done it [what?] and survived on handouts and that's going away".

[Sevenpointfive]

@goaded rent was cheaper/affordable. waitressing was a more respected job. now teenagers want a tip for repeating your order to someone else and handing you a bag or just ringing you up. it's a culture out of hand now because businesses can't function on those margins anymore. some do. if i don't want to tip someone that's a good indicator that they shouldn't be making a living wage. until that's resolved all jobs with tips will suffer. restaurants will suffer the most.

[goaded]

Let me get this straight. "teenagers want a tip" means you have to give them a tip, even if they're rubbish? Why not just complain to the manager who can decide which of you is being the asshole?

You can have an economy where servers get a living wage and a dollar or two tip from customers if they're particularly helpful.

Basically, the business can pay reasonably, ensure their customers get good food for their (slightly higher) prices, and the servers can coast or earn themselves pocket money through tips. Bad ones will still be fired.

[goaded]

Oh, I've visited a few times. My point is that being expected to tip is not the same as being required to tip. The "manager's policy" is, presumably "we'll provide the food, you pay the people to bring it to you"? Except on Sundays, when they shouldn't be working.

Just include the service in the price, and let people complain if it's not good enough.

I feel a bit as though this is like one of those conversations about guns - Americans can't conceive of an environment not saturated with them.

[NaultD]

If my kid wants a job but isn't getting 20 an hour I'd have to slap them around and throw a video game at them to save myself money.

The maintenance of the uniform and transportation even walking shoes cost would cost me me as the parent money. Fuck you entry level job that net negative career path isn't good enough.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

@goaded McDonalds "team member" was never meant to pay rent. It was meant to pay a teenager some supplemental income while they go to school. The reason a Hamburger costs so much now is because of the insane minimum wage. The beef patty itself is only worth about 50 cents.

[Sevenpointfive]

@SeekerOfTruth007 i don't know why that's hard for people to understand? they also don't understand that certain jobs pay more than others. but also raises should be a standard practice just in case of situations where an adult wants to work that job for the rest of their lives. that doesn't mean it's a parallel shift to that wage when changing companies. it's about rewarding loyalty and the company understanding the employee's situation. so in that case it does pay rent.

[goaded]

Amazing that MacDonalds didn't go bust when the federal minimum wage was at it's highest, in real terms, in 1968, isn't it? It was equivalent to $15.29 in 2026 dollars, and people could still afford burgers.

[goaded]

In Germany, where the minimum wage is €13.90 (currently worth $15.89), why hasn't McDonalds gone bankrupt?

[Sevenpointfive]

@goaded probably because there's a middle class? i don't know much about german economics. do you?

[goaded]

Enough to know that there's nothing like the wealth inequality as in the US. Partly because of the minimum wage and strong union membership. Is there no middle class in the US any more? Why not? Could it because of the lack of minimum wage and strong union membership?

[msc545]

@goaded as far as I can tell, there is no middle class in the U. S. anymore. There are no labor unions to speak of, and there is no safety net.

[Twodogs0525]

The McDonald's in my town starts it's hourly workers at 13.75. There's a Burger King about a mile from me that starts it's hourly staff at 15. Those are probably about ave starting rates. I don't know of any place that pays minimum wage. Gas stations, grocery/convenience stores, retail stores... They all pay close to 15. In my area anyway.

[Twodogs0525]

Oh, contrary to popular belief, the middle class in the US is shrinking because they're moving up economically, they're not fall back. In roughly the last 35, 40 years, middle upper/upper class tripled. Germanys middle class is actually getting poorer.

[Sevenpointfive]

@Twodogs0525 there hasn't been a middle class for 25 years dude.

[Twodogs0525]

Never mind! Jesus Christ,@

[goaded]

@Twodogs0525 OK, so what happened to the working class in the time the "middle upper/upper class tripled" (hint: it's because the minimum wage has been stagnant for 17 years), and are you talking about the wealth in that group, or the number of individuals/households?

[Twodogs0525]

@goaded Hint, no companies pay minimum wage! Except for local "mom and pop" stores that the left begs you to buy from, to push out corporations but yet they wanna force these same shops to pay their staff 15-20 dollars an hour. You get paid what some one is willing to pay you.

[goaded]

@Twodogs0525 Did you not understand the question? It was in two simple parts:

1. "what happened to the working class in the time the "middle upper/upper class tripled"?
2. "are you talking about the wealth in that group, or the number of individuals/households"?

FYI:
"Among those paid by the hour, 82,000 workers earned exactly the prevailing federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, and 760,000 workers had wages below the federal minimum. The percentage of hourly paid workers earning the prevailing federal minimum wage or less, at 1.0 percent in 2024, was little changed from the prior year." www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2024/

In 1980, the federal minimum wage was the equivalent of about $13/hr.
www.inflationtool.com/.../us-federal-min-wage

[Sevenpointfive]

@goaded i think that's the real missing piece here. as profits went up wages only went up at the senior level. that happened in EVERY single company. it explains why the tip charge has gotten so high. $2.13 was the arbitrary hourly wage for servers and no one complained until menu prices got too high. people won't tip higher percentages on the same do nothing job just because the food costs more. they're more likely to tip less. it's crazy that the people that can afford to tip aren't. i know many people that don't eat out because of the tip so they don't. or they eat drive-thru's where the cost is hidden and they are fooled. tipping jars, tip screens and dotted lines is begging in my opinion. it needs to go away. but it's all because of capitalism. ALL OF IT. money makes people immoral.

ha! you'd think i was very religious lol

[msc545]

Nearly any social or economic problem you can name in the U. S. economy can be traced back to the imposition of capitalism.

[Twodogs0525]

@goaded What is a clear definition of the "working class"? Is it a 16 yr old working at McDonald's? Or a 20 yr old working at Starbucks? Also, US households are SIGNIFICANTLY wealthier than German households. And before you even start to talk about "individual" wealth, your "social safty nets" don't make money or pay bills. Did you know, that roughly 81 percent of US CITIZENS are satisfied with their health insurance? Tell me what percentage of Germans are satisfied with theirs.

[goaded]

@Twodogs0525 I don't know, you're the one who's convinced the "middle upper/upper class tripled". What's your definition? Are you talking about the wealth in that group, or the number of individuals/households?

Germany has 100% coverage for health care, and much higher satisfaction with it than the US. The US has far lower, and far lower satisfaction. Not to mention a far higher uninsured population (over 25 million compared to 61 thousand).

healthsystemsfacts.org/.../
healthsystemsfacts.org/.../

Guess how the US compares to Germany in
en.wikipedia.org/.../List_of_countries_by_maternal_mortality_ratio
en.wikipedia.org/.../List_of_countries_by_infant_and_under-five_mortality_rates
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_mortality
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy_at_birth

[Twodogs0525]

@goaded You don't have a definition of "working class"? The UN didn't define it for you? Lol You told me n you don't GOOGLE anything! The US CITIZENS are just as satisfied with their health insurance as the German's are. However, the German'svare not happy with their overall Healthcare. Prove ME WRONG L@

[goaded]

@Twodogs0525 I did prove you wrong, click the links. You're the one making claims about how wonderful the middle class is moving up - prove it. When you say the "middle upper/upper class tripled", what's your definition? Are you talking about the wealth in that group, or the number of individuals/households?

Since you won't answer, I have to assume you're talking about wealth, not households.

[Twodogs0525]

@goaded American Enterprise Institute - AEI
https://www.aei.org
The Middle Class Is Shrinking Because of a Booming Upper-Middle Class

[Twodogs0525]

Reason Magazine
https://reason.com
Yes, the middle class is shrinking—because it's moving up

[goaded]

@Twodogs0525 LMAO: They're making up our own definition of the middle class.

Reason magazine is just reporting the AEI paper.

Did you look at the methodology?

It says "don't worry, you're an upper middle class family even though you're alone and earning half what you'd need to afford a house and several kids"!

"We convert incomes into family-of-three equivalents, which, under conventional assumptions about how incomes and needs are related, represent the amount of income a family would need to be equally well-off if it had three members instead of however many it actually has. By our approach, a single-person family needs almost $58,000 to be as well-off as a three-person family with $100,000, while a family of five requires nearly $130,000. After our adjustment, each family would have $100,000. For 2024, median unadjusted family income was $76,900, while median adjusted income was $94,300—higher because the typical family size was smaller than three."

[AviatorTom]

There is a legitimate debate over whether there should even be a federal minimum wage. Costs of living, and averages wages, duffer greatly throughout the country, from region to region, state to state. Every state has a minimum wage, set for the specific conditions of the state.

Sometimes, states know best, and this is one of them.

That's the way it should be. Leve the federal minimum wage alone, or abolish it completely.

[front2back]

I don't see an issue with raising it but it is basically a moot point now since even the lowest paying jobs pay a few or more dollars more than minimum wage at this point.
I live in the poorest state in the union and you cannot find a job that pays less than $12 an hour, and most fast food jobs are between $14-16/hr starting. Dominos will pay you $25/hr to deliver.

[msc545]

Yes all of that is good but the problem is that people still don't find these wages livable since prices have risen to meet or exceed them.

[Joshydavid25]

Congress hasn't voted it in yet, and didn't vote for it to raise with the inflation.. But it doesn't need to raise.. The minimum wage is a government sanctioned scam that gets kids out of jobs.. The cost makes companies have to cut positions and use different more higher than the job needs countermeasures so that they don't have to spend as much time training people giving them valuable experience..

[Capplica]

Didn't it go up in NYC to 16:50 or something? But over there it's very expensive, so they can't pay you too low or you won't be able to live and work their without public assistance.

[LiamS95]

The minimum wage rate where I live in Ontario, Canada is $18.00/hour and it's still not a living wage.

[Telekinetic-Potato]

Ohhh yea lol. We should probably raise it to 14 and some change. It's almost hard to believe it hasn't changed.

[MrChinaski]

I know it's circular logic... indulge me... but almost nobody is paid the federal minimum wage anyway.

[msc545]

Apparently you haven't been to Kentucky or Tennessee recently.

[duntoldya]

Minimum wage allows nonskilled workers to compete in the market for entry-level jobs. It allows them to gain experience and skills they can use to improve their employment options.

[Kelly6]

@msc545 Why should it?

They are runner by corporations

[msc545]

Well, maybe it should be so people can eat, but I realize that's just a radical suggestion.

[888theGreat]

Because they really don't go by it anymore. Most employers know they must pay more than that or no one will take the job

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Because raising minimum wage does NOTHING except drive inflation. It actually hurts the middle class.

[goaded]

What does it do to the working class?

[goaded]

"What does it do to the working class?"
thumb.wikimedia.org/.../...n.field.cricket.arp.jpg

[goaded]

Those are crickets, by the way. "What does it do to the working class?"

[SeekerOfTruth007]

@goaded Look, genius, if let's say my Mother works as a Patient Care Tech at the Hospital, and she makes $22 per hour while minimum wage is $9 per hour. Now if you give everyone a minimum wage raise to 15 per hour, the hospital REFUSES to give my mother a raise, so she just go a huge PAY CUT relative to the cost of living, because raising the minimum wage IS THE NUMBER ONE DRIVER OF INFLATION.

[goaded]

If my mother had wheels, she'd be a wagon. WHY would the hospital refuse to give your mother a raise? How would not getting a raise be a "PAY CUT"? WHY would other people getting paid more affect her income at all?

Increasing the minimum wage by 50% wouldn't increase the price of burgers by 50%, because most of the cost is in the plant, ingredients, and profits.

What actually happens is that people on or near minimum wage get a pay rise and spend the money immediately, helping the economy and bringing people out of poverty.

What really drives inflation is greed, and fuel prices. Prove me wrong.

[goaded]

Here's another minor detail: McDonalds isn't only in the US. In Germany, where the minimum wage is €13.90 (currently worth $15.89), they also haven't gone bankrupt.

Nor has Amazon, paying the same minimum wage. And having union representation.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

@goaded You've clearly never priced raw goods versus finished products. Over half the price of ANYTHING you buy at a restaurant is the wages of minimum wage workers.

[goaded]

Keep ignoring the questions.

In Germany, where the minimum wage is €13.90 (currently worth $15.89), why hasn't McDonalds gone bankrupt?

How would your mother not getting a raise be a "PAY CUT"? WHY would other people getting paid more affect her income at all?

Increasing the minimum wage by 50% wouldn't increase the price of burgers by 50%, because most of the cost is in the plant, ingredients, and profits.

What actually happens with a federal minimum pay rise is that people on or near minimum wage get a pay rise and spend the money immediately, helping the economy and bringing people out of poverty.

What really drives inflation is greed, and fuel prices. Prove me wrong.

In Germany, Amazon, paying the same minimum wage, and having union representation, is still profitable. How do you explain that?

[SeekerOfTruth007]

@goaded Inflation is driven almost entirely by minimum wage, you dumbass. I thought that was self-evident.

Here:

It costs 18 DOLLARS at walmart to buy 2lbs of 97% lean ground beef. Whether you believe it or not, over half of that is going to minimum wage employees at some point. A Whopper at Burger King is 4.4oz of meat which cooks down to 4oz on the grill after losing fat and fluid. If you can make roughly 8 whoppers CHEAPER than that, because Burger King owns their own cattle ranches, that means the meat of EIGHT WHOPPERS is 18 dollars or less for the meat. The vegetables are dirt cheap compared to the meat, so ignore them for now. They charge you ~$5 for a whopper now, and you have to pay the entire crew FIFTEEN DOLLARS PER FUCKING HOUR PER PERSON, NOT COUNTING THE MANAGEMENT AND PAYING FOR INSURANCE. That means to pay ONE PERSON for ONE HOUR you must sell 3 whoppers, and you have not even broken even nor made a profit.

Everything you buy at Wal Mart or Target or anywhere is like that. Over half the price of all finished goods is MINIMUM WAGE LABOR at some point or another, so raising minimum wage drives inflation, and inflation means PATIENT CARE TECH AT HOSPITAL WORKER GETS SCREWED EVERY TIME THEY RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE, BECAUSE THE HOSPITAL OFFERS HER A 25 CENT RAISE PER YEAR, WHILE MINIMUM WAGE EMPLOYEES WITH NO EDUCATION AT ALL GET PAID 15 DOLLARS PER HOUR NOW.

What part of that is too hard for you democrats to understand? If they raise minimum wage to 20 dollars per hour, SHE MAY AS WELL QUIT THE HOSPITAL JOB AND BECOME A GREETER AT WAL-MART.

You dumb fuck. EDUCATE YOURSELF.

[goaded]

"I thought that was self-evident."? Have you even heard of the concept of proof? How long do you think it takes to cook a burger? How many burgers can one person cook at a time?

You: "The reason a Hamburger costs so much now is because of the insane minimum wage. The beef patty itself is only worth about 50 cents. "

Also you: "the meat of EIGHT WHOPPERS is 18 dollars or less for the meat"

So, $2.25, not $0.50. LMAO

[msc545]

@goaded, just so you know, I blocked this guy after many conversations with him because I could not get him to stop with his foul mouth and his constant insults. If you can put up with it, or you choose to put up with it, then so be it. I frankly never want to hear or see anything from this guy again, or see anything from him, unless he can somehow begin to converse like an adult. I won't even go into his obvious abject stupidity.