Would equal the purchasing power that the minimum wage had in 1980. What you can actually buy with that wage has been decreasing since 1980.

Years ago. Think it was PBS with host Ben Wattenberg, who had on some older (early to mid-80’s?) wealthy guy talking about minimum wage that the D’s wanted to raise.

He goes off: “In my day...!”

And then he said what he made working after school and weekends - BEFORE World War II - how it was a “starter job,” taught him “work ethic...values”, etc., etc., and how $15 was outrageous!

After the program ended I looked the man up, found his age, and came up with the year he was age 16. And then I plugged that wage he said was so damn good into an inflation calculator to see how what he was paid at age 16 would be in today’s dollars.

Answer: About $15.

Eff these guys.

to counter those “when I was in college we just got a part-time job instead of running up debt” sanctimonious declarations:

In 1970, a 17 hour a week minimum wage job would pay average tuition, room and board. When I last saw the figures a few years back, it required 90 hours of minimum wage just to pay tuition. So, three 30 hour/week jobs, plus class and study time is all you need.

...when I was in high school I worked in a grocery store for a BIG chain. They paid me LESS than minimum wage because I was a high school part-timer; i.e., because they could. After 90 days of that they paid me minimum wage, all of $1.15 an hour.

I graduated & went to college, got a job in a factory from May to early Sept to make money for tuition, room and board at a private university in another state. That factory job - back THEN - paid me a whopping $2.20 an hour and, depending on that day’s assignment, I could be paid $3.40 an hour! I worked every day and prayed for overtime because that was time-and-half, double time after the 8th hour, TRIPLE time on Sunday’s or on the midnight to 7AM shift, often got it.

In early Sept. I left to go back to school with almost ALL the money I needed to pay tuition and R&B.

That factory job was a union job.
I was a member of the United Steelworkers.
Those jobs don’t, or rarely do, exist today.

and better workers, too.

on MW --and heard (verbatim) the same talking points that were being trotted out 15 years ago.
Like I said -- fairly short discussion. Who has time ..?

afford a pizza because the CEO makes too
Much.

Bombard them with the truth... killing the middle class and workers who are trying to just do what most us growing up in America were able to do under a min wage that was never fair but at least livable .... I remember those days ....

Also, I had a boss from hell. He was a small business owner. I told my next boss at a different company about the tyrant, and the new boss told me he would not work for a small business owner because many small business owners only respect other small business owners. Not sure if I agree, but that’s one perspective.

should do so on their own so they can at least look decent to their employees because the hammer is coming down .... you can't exploit poor American citizens anymore .... mostly black, women, immigrants and our youth .... slave labor of the modern age

Trump's appeal to white grievance wouldn't work on half of the.

Pay Republicans in Congress $15 an hour?

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/americans-favor-fifteen-dollars-an-hour-for-congress

After all, to our republican Congressfolk, $15 an hour is a magnificent wage.

A bigger minimum wage, but they love the increased sales coming from new customers whose own employers are paying them a living wage that allows them to buy more stuff.

Even though numerous studies prove them false, this short sighted, self serving excuse has been the old standby for decades. It's gotta go. Every dollar earned by the working poor goes right back into pumping up the local economy and that benefits everyone.

If someone complains that paying a higher minimum wage will force them out of business then they probably have many other financial problems they should be pointing at first.

I was just talking about this today. raising minimum wages now let's a single mom with two kids for example, get rid of or reduce food stamps, heating assistance, maybe some child care assistance. You would think righties would be all for that. but.....Rush, Hannity, Levin, etc. won't let them critical think things out. their sole purpose is to make boogy men out of all these subjects.

Hate radio propaganda has GOT to go!!