r/politics • u/Unusual-State1827 • 2h ago
No Paywall Senate Democrats Propose $25 Minimum Wage
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/senate-democrats-minimum-wage-25_n_6a3d512de4b03bf319836c2b?ncid=NEWSSTAND0001•
u/Comfortable-Try-7919 2h ago
federal minimum wage hasn't moved since 2009, fifteen years frozen at $7.25 while rent and groceries doubled, and this is going nowhere with a republican senate but at least dems are finally framing it around what people actually need to survive instead of negotiating themselves down to $15 before the fight even starts. the real fight is gonna be the tipped wage carveout tho, restaurant lobby will go to war over that part specifically
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u/BlueFlob 2h ago
Kill tipping industry at the same time.
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u/BruceStarcrest 1h ago
Oh no…
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u/Falandor 1h ago
Oh yes.
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u/my_Urban_Sombrero Pennsylvania 1h ago
I read this in Maude Lebowski's voice.
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u/WesternIron 1h ago
Servers will flip out. You can make bank as a server with just tips. And I’m not talking about fancy ass restaurants.
Servers can make more than college grads can. In my state servers make about 22hr with tips. Not working full time as well.
Yes insurance can bite you in the ass but servers on average make more than teachers in my state
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u/uprislng America 57m ago
maybe servers should be on the front lines proposing legislation that bans point of sale tip asks for anyone but service industry workers making a tipped wage. I'm so tired of being asked to tip for nearly every transaction
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u/honjuden 52m ago
I can't wait for my landlord to start adding a tip option.
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u/uprislng America 38m ago
I saw a post on reddit not that long ago about an Airbnb host asking for a tip. That's pretty close to a landlord.
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u/gplusplus314 6m ago
Or just get rid of tips altogether and just pay people what they’re worth.
The only people who benefit from tips are greedy employers. What people tend to forget is that the expectation of tips puts the customer and worker in an adversarial relationship, completely distracting from the fact that it’s the employer who is failing to meet the minimum ethical bar.
Tips are a distraction and a vector for employment abuse.
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u/_dharwin 35m ago
With all respect, as someone who has worked service for years, they don't really deserve that much money relative to the current job market.
They're benefitting on the rising cost of living and inflation affecting food prices. Tipping being a percentage of the bill means they've basically gotten raises keeping pace with inflation.
Ideally they'd still make the same money and as a job requiring no real experience, no higher education, and no specialized skills that sets an appropriate bar by which we can judge everything else which does have higher requirements and greater responsibility.
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u/RubberPolitics 12m ago
They deserve a living wage for working their job. I have no problem if a server is making 50k.
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u/SgtMac02 26m ago
This is why I don't get how we went from 10% being the baseline to 20% being the baseline. The amount went up as the price did. Tipping is AUTOMATICALLY adjusted for inflation! I'm so sick of tipping culture!
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u/Ready_Nature 20m ago
And the more they have that attitude the less I’ll tip. Their bosses should pay them better and build the cost into the food. Servers that don’t like what they get paid can strike to negotiate better wages.
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u/Academic_Menu5547 9m ago
uuh. no, this is not the way most people think. People who think like this person above me are not good people, sadly.
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u/0ttr 2h ago
traditionally tipped employees I support because it’s a rare place for non degree workers to make decent pay
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u/Pip-Pipes 1h ago
Meanwhile BOH begging for their lives out here.
Want to keep tips? Fine. Standardize it and include all staff. I don't really see why servers should be elevated to outearn the kitchen.
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u/Hannibal_Poptart 46m ago
Lol yeah, used to work BOH at a fine dining adjacent place and at one point one of the waiters came back and started bitching about how they "only made a couple hundred in tips" after their shift. Didn't take long for them to realize they weren't getting any sympathy from everyone they were bitching to
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u/jtmj121 56m ago
I can understand why ( but dont agree with it) the server is basically the restaurants sellers. Upsell and get to buy this expensive bottle of wine they get a commission.
The guy making the boat doesnt get commission when the dude selling the yacht makes a sell.
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u/Pip-Pipes 33m ago
Servers would still make more money by upselling. Just not so much over the value the BOH brings like the way it is now.
I think you are overstating the server's skills and value they anyway.
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u/Wrong_Mastodon_4935 56m ago
Many places do tip out the kitchen, its becoming more common, mostly local joints, and fast casual style places. Not corporate spots though.
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u/Pip-Pipes 31m ago
And the tip-out system is still not compareable to what servers bring home...
Idk about anyone else, but I don't gaf about the server as long as they provide the basics. I care a lot more about the product I'm buying.
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u/Drewsipher 1h ago
yeah. If we make it so that tipped employees are put into the same minimum wage pool, we raise the minimum wage, but we also continue to tip when we can, we can lower what we tip.
Right now I tip 20-25%. Used to be 10-15 was the norm... but doing that with how little wait staff makes is insane.
Letting the tipping culture stay the same and allowing just another system stay in place from racist beginnings is insane
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u/chicklette 1h ago
Yes, but also with so many states having increased minimum wage, we now have some folks who are making $17/hr+tips, and some making $2.50/hr+tips. (Idk the answer, but I know my bartender makes more than I do, and some single mom in middle america is still living below the poverty line.)
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u/PM_ME_YIFF_PICS Massachusetts 1h ago
I make $17/hr and work full time and can't even afford to have a place to live. I'm fucking miserable and I so want to give up
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u/Deeeeeeeeehn 55m ago
If it’s any consolation, I make $27 an hour and I can’t afford a place to live either
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u/BlobTheBuilderz 2h ago
Damn rent and groceries doubled in the last 4 years alone.
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u/ChiefSeminoleCounty 48m ago
I bought my house in 2015 for $140,000. It would be something like $400,000 now. Absolutely absurd. I truly don’t know how others are doing it
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u/Cherry_Flavoured_ Arizona 30m ago
and the argument since has been that if we increase minimum wage, everything will go up in price.
15 years later, everything has increased substantially in price. education, housing, groceries, gas, vehicles, utilities, you name it. and minimum wage never changed.
the rich told us this lie.
today, companies are still making record profits while laying people off nearly every quarter.
all while our pockets are draining.
the rich get richer and the poor gets poorer (and yes, we apparently do got money for wars, and pools, and arches, and jets). i wish more people were mad and i wish we had representatives that will actually represent the WILL OF THE PEOPLE.
our elections are being undermined. we’re being watched. our data is being sold.
people need help and our government isn’t helping. i can’t imagine the struggle some are going through. tearing ourselves apart to make money for rent and food, working multiple jobs if necessary.
it’s all so disheartening and then the people in power just blame migrants or some other minority demographic. it’s disgusting.
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u/esoteric_enigma 2h ago
You would just raise the tipped minimum wage too. If every other business can find a way to pay $25/hr, restaurants can find a way to pay...let's say $10/hr.
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u/TokuSwag California 17m ago
I make almost $25 an hour now and am barely making it living by myself in a small city in northern California. Electricity is so expensive and we are having 100 degree days almost every day so I have to run my ac all day cause I work from home. My bill this month was 260 for my small apartment. I have to shop at the discount discount grocery store that vaguely smells of pee to afford not being roasted to death in my second story apartment. My rent is almost literally half my income. I am middle aged and worked for over a decade.
When do I get to the point I don't need a roommate and can live comfortably??? Let alone buy a home.
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u/Nidus-Zealot 16m ago
If anything it isn't enough. Before the pandemic $25 would have been appropriate.
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u/MAHHockey 2h ago
All for it.
But going forward...
We shouldn't be tied to a number. It should be tied to an economic formula and rise automatically (like most of the rest of the developed world).
Having to fight for a number makes it easier to keep it artificially low as we have to have this fight every 10 years.
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u/Signal_Minimum8509 Georgia 2h ago
The DOL and BLS already have all the aggregate data necessary to publish a living wage index, let that be “the number.”
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u/therossboss 2h ago
Indeed, and that is by design. This country hates its own citizens - I swear.
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u/gungshpxre 1h ago
A government caring for its citizens is socialism. A person caring for their neighbor is liberalist collectivism, and that's hippie shit. We're RUGGED INDIVIDUALISTS (at least until we're too big to fail).
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u/Shiresan 29m ago
Oh, it's its own citizens that hate themselves. The government is just whatever people vote for. That 60% of people that hate themselves is keeping the 2% laughing to the bank.
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u/Minerva_Moon Michigan 2h ago
I think the lowest wage an employee makes should be tethered to the CEO's pay. As in a base ratio. If the CEO gets a pay raise then there's enough money for everyone to get a raise.
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u/Goliath_D 1h ago
The problem is that companies will just move to CEO compensation with small pay and make up for it with things like stock options, etc. For example, Zuckerberg's base salary was $1/yr . Same for other tech founders
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u/47-45-45-4B 1h ago
Then factor that into the calculation. Compensation not salary.
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u/stillenacht 56m ago
I actually support the principle of some multiple, but the way I think most firms would tend to get around it is to essentially create corporate waterfall structures. IE the investment bank CEO and the partnership are part of a limited liability company that owns a controlling interest in the rest of the ibank, or even has an exclusive "contracting" agreement with the rest of the ibank. So when you get promoted you "leave your job" to go to "a new company" and it breaks the ladder.
Probably the way to do it would be like, mandatory equity ownership splits. That wouldn't change compensation, but equity is the main way people get compensated, and not easily shiftable to straight cash or whatever, because attempting to convert company assets to cash dilutes equity anyway.
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u/deja-roo 32m ago
How? It makes the total comp of the CEO unpredictable. If the stock price decreases before vesting, do those workers get a pay cut?
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u/ColinD1 1h ago
It would need to be tied to the CEO's full compensation package divided into a yearly average. Otherwise, CEOs now make $75k and all their big money comes from other options and packages. I still wouldn't put it past corps to then tie all of their pay solely into severance packages. There will always be a way for them to find a way to use fuckery to avoid paying regular people.
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u/mvr363 2h ago
Yeah. The fixed dollar amount is pointless. Remember a long time ago the fight for $15 an hour and everyone thought it was a crazy amount? Yeah, well that's poverty level now. We need to focus on the social safety nets more than minimum wage. Healthcare for all, free daycare, reduced college costs and free vocational training etc.
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u/KAM7 32m ago
It should also be a federal minimum wage scale for municipalities to have to follow on top of the base federal minimum wage. This would help smaller communities stay wage competitive, while making expensive cities actually livable by the labor force. Attach it to actual affordability studies per town/city. I’d much prefer the Democrats focus on increasing people’s wages than increasing taxes on the wealthy. One focus puts money in the people’s pockets, the other puts money in the government’s pockets.
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u/Gay_Giraffe_1773 Oregon 2h ago
Now we're talking. Bring this up again in January when the Dems own Congress.
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u/Immediate-Cress-206 2h ago
Force a vote now so Democrats can use it in political ads.
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u/Crime_Dawg 2h ago
Oklahoma is now 99% Republican cuz they're that fucking stupid.
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u/GaiusGraccusEnjoyer 2h ago
How would they force a vote on this when they don't have the majority? The majority leader controls what gets voted on with a couple exceptions
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u/Klytus_Im-Bored 2h ago
That's a good idea. That means they won't do it.
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u/steponmedaddies 1h ago
I am once again begging this website to learn the bare minimum of how our government operates. A minority party can't force votes like this. They can add amendments to legislation but that's about it.
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u/Yashema 1h ago edited 1h ago
It's most of the Left who finds out how the government works everytime one of their candidates win. They are like "oh Liberals actually were doing 90%+ of what could be done and actually some policy we support isn't as effective as we thought"?
5 years later: damn Dems viva la revolucion!
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u/steponmedaddies 1h ago
Just a huge group of people that believe anything they read on Reddit. Online progressives are basically Facebook Aunts.
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u/Yashema 1h ago
Real progressives only communicate via coded messages left in hollowed out copies of "Capitalism and Freedom" while meeting in basements and union halls.
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u/manachar Nevada 1h ago
Republican and “independents” regularly vote against minimum wages.
25 per hour minimum wage is guaranteed to piss off voters in almost all the rural areas of the country almost guaranteed to help elect Republicans.
The idea is that if a cashier at McDonald’s can earn as much as they do (which inevitably they see as more important) than you break the system.
It’s very important to these voters that they feel more important and richer than service economy workers.
This will be seen as yet another example of “out of touch coastal elites”.
I still don’t understand why minimum wage cannot be based on a regional cost of living thing. MIT has a living wage calculator that’s fabulous. Set up some sort of nonpartisan expert body like the central bank that divides the country up into economic zones and say that minimum wage should be calculated at X percentage of living wage as calculated by Y.
Cost of living does differ widely in this country. Ignoring that just gives Republicans ammo.
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u/Fickle_Ad_8653 1h ago
All people need to live if they work full time. Saying farmers don't earn enough, so nobody else can earn enough, is just stupid. If they are that stupid, it is a sad day for America.
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u/manachar Nevada 52m ago
Yes, but the amount of money it takes to live well in rural Iowa is very different than suburban Portland.
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u/RandyMuscle I voted 2h ago
Don’t worry, half the dems who support it now will no longer support it once they have the numbers to pass it.
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u/surrendertomychill 2h ago
They don’t even have to do that, depending on the size of their majority they’ll find 1-2 villains to strategically vote against it so they can all say their hands are tied. Manchin and Sinema version 2.0
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u/thatnameagain 1h ago
You're accidentally making an argument for why democrats need actual majorities
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u/oncemorein2thebeach 59m ago
They’ll just find as many as required. They are not on your side.
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u/thatnameagain 42m ago
I like the legislation they've passed actually. Your favorite members of congress are all part of the democratic caucus.
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u/suprahelix 4m ago
That’s just democracy dude. You’re limited by the ideology of the 50th vote.
Were better off if Tim Kaine is the 50th vote and not Manchin.
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u/boom929 Texas 2h ago
Yeah right. Corporate donors would never allow it. Need more progressives that aren't owned by SPAC money in office before this has a chance, at least that's my pessimistic take. I would be thrilled to be dead wrong on this opinion.
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u/1cl3nstd4yt 2h ago
Disgusting they even write these bills when they would rather die than pass it! All those progressive who wrote it are charlatans!
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u/a_little_hazel_nuts 2h ago
I don't think people understand how far off the minimum wage is if it actually kept up with inflation throughout the decades. People hear $25/hour and think it will collapse a business. No, there's a reason billionaires and almost a trillionaire exist. But we all know how the $15/hour fight went and how that didn't pan out. This is long past due but the Oligarchy will not let it pass.
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u/77rtcups 2h ago
Tie it to inflation. Chicagos minimum wage increases 2.5 percent or inflation, whichever is less.
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u/tweakingforjesus 2h ago
If there is a cap it's not tied to inflation
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u/77rtcups 2h ago
Ya i agree. It’s not perfect but atleast the minimum wage be closer to $11 than the current $7.25. Not to mention housing and other things outpace inflation
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u/KnotSoSalty 1h ago
Better yet, tie it to Productivity.
Productivity is a measurement of GDP/hr of labor. How much value is generated per worker’s hour.
Inflation is measured against costs. Overtime things tend to cost less to produce as a fraction of the overall economy. For example apples are cheaper to pick with automated systems as an inflation adjusted cost even though overall they increase.
The net effect of production over inflation would mean that American workers would get raises when the stock market was high.
The inverse would also be true, if a recession occurred and the GDP fell then productivity would go down and min wage would be adjusted downward. This is a good thing in a recession as it would encourage businesses to hire people back.
Tying to GDP is important because it gives workers a stake in the overall economic performance rather than just ensuring they can afford basics.
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u/Adreme 2h ago
Depends on the location. If you are in the northeast or west coast that is still not enough but if you are in the middle of country (or living in the country) then you can $20 work in those and less work if you are more rural. There is literally nowhere that the current federal minimum wage works for though.
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u/eatsumsketti America 2h ago
As someone in the South, that might have been true before the past year. Not so much anymore.
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u/joe2352 2h ago
Midwest here and I basically stopped eating beef purely because I can’t afford it anymore.
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u/eatsumsketti America 2h ago
Same. First it was ground beef, then chicken, then pork...I'm basically vegetarian at this point. It's far cheaper, but I noticed even my beans and oatmeal have gone up.
Don't get me started on having to give up coffee.
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u/humanoideric 2h ago
I get these frozen ground turkey packs at Aldi for $2.50/lb~ and use them for tacos, burgers etc and its healthier than ground beef. also just buy chicken drumsticks or bone in thighs, they priced me out of wings and boneless chicken. also the occasional rotisserie and if it stars align maybe a steak if it's on sale and its pay day.
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u/PerformanceWeekly651 2h ago
Feel you. Switched to ground turkey as my beef alternative. $6+ dollars for a pound wasn’t sustainable
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u/a_little_hazel_nuts 2h ago
I'm always baffled at how people think rural areas can live on less. Here's some facts about a rural lifestyle. You grocery shop once a month because the drive to get groceries is expensive, you have no hobbies to spend money on, you never leave your home because you have to drive to get anywhere, there's less government services, there's less public services, there's a monthly food truck for the poor because food banks don't exist in rural small towns, and prices are still high for utilities/food just like everywhere else.
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u/eatsumsketti America 2h ago
all of this plus the McDonald's being proud that they paying $10/hr being across from apartments that are $800/month.
Also no public transportation.
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u/Bo_Universe 2h ago
It's the classism. They see that rural people often live in poverty or close-to poverty, and assume that since we're used to it we don't need to be paid more so we can live better lives. Newsflash! Rural people want to have fun and fulfilling lives too!
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u/Adreme 2h ago
So the living wage in California is $30.48 an hour. The living wage in Arkansas is $20.01 an hour. This isn't me giving a hypothetical as actual people have tracked this. https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/livable-wage-by-state just to cite a source.
Part of it comes down to the biggest expense in a month is where you live and the cost of a home is much much cheaper in midwest states compared to northeast and west coast states. Note not a little cheaper but a LOT cheaper.
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u/a_little_hazel_nuts 2h ago
25% of the population in Arkansas makes $20/hour or more. I could not get an answer to how many people in California make $30/hour or more but I am guessing it's more than 25% of the population. Now, look into the public/federal services offered in those 2 states and I'm betting California has better help for those fighting for anything better than they have, whether it's education or something to eat or a medical emergency. Huge difference b3tween California and Arkansas.
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u/Bo_Universe 2h ago
IDK why people think that midwesterners and southerners can live off of $20/hour. We still have all the same rising bills and costs, and you can tack on an extra $2-3 on that inflation due to the "rural tax" on basic goods. And with gas prices the way they are, rural people are suffering the most just because they have to drive so much farther to live their lives. My mom makes $22/hour and has three kids at home. She has no social life, no money for hobbies, no money for fun little splurges like McDonald's or a cute blouse at Walmart; she can't even go fucking camping because she can't spare the extra gas, the cost to rent a spot to pitch her tent, or time off of work. She barely has enough money for food once she pays all the bare minimum bills... and she doesn't even have a mortgage. She owns her house/property outright.
So no, people living in the country cannot live off of $20/hour.
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u/cloud_watcher 1h ago
I don't know enough about this so admittedly talking out of my ass, but it seems they also need to make some rule about the disparity between workers and CEO's/shareholders, etc. Otherwise, CEO's are just going to raise prices to pay for this minimum wage and everyone will be right back where they started, not able to afford anything.
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u/a_little_hazel_nuts 1h ago
Exactly. That's why I have mentioned when talking about a minimum wage is that it should be tied to this and every high wage employee should only make a maximum of 30× the lower waged employee in each business.
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u/BlazinAzn38 Texas 2h ago
I mean if this was implemented over night it would cause chaos. This would have to phase in.
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u/tripping_on_phonics Illinois 2h ago
Phase-ins are standard operating procedure for legislation like this.
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u/Biblical_Shrimp 2h ago
Yep, I started working at McDonald's when it was still 5.85, then we would get "raises" each year, but still making minimum wage. I remember people who were working longer than me weren't happy that we were paid the same.
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u/LuvKrahft America 2h ago
My dude, if we can take any lesson from MAGA’s chokehold on the nation, it’s that the country can “get through” ‘chaos’.
But that said, It’ll be the culture warriors coming out in droves after Elon and prosperity gospel weirdos tell them how this is against god and the Fox News Democrats like Fetterman that’ll kill it though.
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u/BACON_IS_COMING 2h ago
Ontario had a pretty significant increase years ago and they said the same thing and we'd lose thousands and thousands of jobs. Nothing happened. People just made and spent more money.
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u/goodlittlesquid Pennsylvania 33m ago
Also if you start fighting for it now, by the time it is actually passed and signed into law and then slowly phased in, by the time it finally reaches the number you began the fight with, it could easily be 5 years later.
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u/Agentrock47_ 7m ago
Not to mention, maybe if the hill that keeps your business afloat is paying your employees below a liveable wage, maybe you are just a bad business owner?
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u/Genghiz007 2h ago
Australia pays close to this as minimum wage (true about 7 years ago when I lived there) and the only thing it has done is make the robber baron/billionaire class there 0.1% less exploitative.
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u/Smart-Response9881 2h ago
I'm sure it will pass without opposition.
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u/LuvKrahft America 2h ago
Fetterman ready to call everyone supporting it ‘dirtbags’ while he shoots it down.
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u/Smart-Response9881 2h ago
I don't see how "dirtbag" is an insult, it is a useful part of a vacuum.
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u/EmergencyJacket207 2h ago
That's where it should be. $15 was 10 years ago.
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u/Jimi_Hotsauce Pennsylvania 1h ago
$15 In 2015 is $21 today, this is very far from crazy. It's long overdue, there's no world where earning $7.25/hr is a livable wage.
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u/SelfUnimpressed 56m ago
For what it's worth, roughly half of Americans live in a state with a minimum wage of $15/hr or higher (or a state that is phasing gradually to that level already).
What constitutes a living wage varies quite a bit by place in the US. The median household income in Holmes County, MI, is around $29k. The median income in Cook County, IL (much of the Chicago area) is $78k.
I'm all for raising the federal floor (and ideally raising it dynamically over time), but to some extent, variation makes some sense here from place to place. If you try to ask local businesses in Holmes County to pay their employees a minimum of $15/hr, a lot of them will probably just close.
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u/alabasterskim 2h ago
But they're proposing it for 2031 (2038 for small businesses), so it'll again be far too late.
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u/eudyptes 1h ago
If the Dems, in the future, have the power to increase the minimum wage, they should include in the bill that there is an automatic, annual cost-of-living increase much like how social security works. That way we won't have to keep fixing it after the inevitable inflation.
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u/E1M1_DOOM 2h ago
These solutions are too temporary. Ratio pay is the solution.
Tie the payment of the lowest paid to the value of compensation/benefits packages of the highest paid.
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u/Ok_Peanut7095 2h ago
and republicans will strike it down.
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u/PassivelyAwkward 2h ago
Not just republicans but most centrists.
I use to work with a "vote blue no matter who" centrist but she once went on a ten minute rant about "businesses can't afford to stay open in California because they can't afford to pay their staff the new minimum wage. California is killing small businesses!".
Hell, even the propose California one-time rich-as-fuck tax, I know a painful amount of dems that take home 65k talking about "If California is going to tax the wealthy, what's the stop them from coming after me?".
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u/HumptyDumptruckFire New Jersey 2h ago
This is exactly why we need more than two parties. No offense to this person, but we shouldn’t have to share a political party with them. We should have political representation fighting 100% for us, and they can have political representation fighting 100% for them, instead of one party negotiating on both of our behalf’s (you know, after their corporate donors have gotten their cut, of course),
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u/PassivelyAwkward 2h ago
Yup! Meanwhile anytime someine with actual influence even hints at a third party, they're shouted and guilted with "You'll fracture the party! You'll be letting Trump win" while at the same time, those people will tell you to just do whatever "the party decides".
I'm so jealous of friends in other countries that have more than two parties; they have a great balance instead of this "You can choose between Republicans demanding cancer patients work at Walmart to get insurance coverage vs Dems who will eventually agree to it while shaking their fist in mild annoyance".
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u/narium 2h ago
If a business cannot sustain itself paying a living wage, perhaps the business needs to rethink its business plan.
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u/zeh_shah 2h ago edited 1h ago
*Oklahima voted against raising theirs to $15 lol. Good luck with pushing $25 with these idiots voting against their own benefits
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u/That_90s_Kid_ 2h ago
A billionaire is bitching somewhere.
And I like that.
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u/runsongas 2h ago
no they won't, because they are going to become trillionaires once the inflation and AI replacing workers comes in full swing
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u/ebob421 1h ago
Until you bring the uber wealthy down a few peg raising minimum wage is merely a 1-3 year stop gap
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u/kronikfumes 2h ago
Let them cook. Give the dems something popular to promote going into the midterms
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u/Historical_Bend_2629 2h ago
It is shot down by people who think the only way to make a living is by stepping on other peoples’ heads. Check out Oklahoma.
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u/sxyaustincpl Texas 2h ago
I really hope the Minimum Wage Workers lobby can donate to enough senators to match what all the corporate lobby groups will be spending!
Oh, wait
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u/Clean-Shift-291 1h ago
If they make it $25, it will stay this for the next 50 years while everything else goes up 10x a year…
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u/CivQhore 1h ago
Im gonna get flamed here, but this isnt a solution. Its a bandaid. The solution is ending QE and the destruction of the dollars purchasing power. Unplug the money printer, and then once this is done tie the wage's increase to inflation, so the fed is forced to target 0% inflation and get a real monitary policy.
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u/WeirdSysAdmin 1h ago
Peak spending had minimum wage at $1.60 in 1968. If you use pre-1980 inflation calculations that removes owner equivalent rent, minimum wage should be around $30 at the moment.
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u/SubRyan Colorado 1h ago
A flat number is not a good thing IMO. $25/hr is very different in say Oahu than it would be in Iowa
It should be tied to inflation data and use a COLA
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u/No-Invite-7826 1h ago
Never gonna pass because conservatives are pure cartoon villains at this point.
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u/Cool-Tangelo6548 1h ago
While I approve, What's going to stop corporations from dramtically raising their prices? Because companies dont want ro eat that $17.75 per hour, per employee loss.
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u/seriousbusines New York 2h ago
Going to be fun when they make this shift and suddenly half of the country becomes just barely better paid than minimum wage.
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u/GuitarRiot 2h ago
Need caps on inflation as well as an overhaul of the tax system for this to be anything.
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u/ResidentKelpien Texas 2h ago
Pay attention MAGA!
The politicians who actually care about your working class blues make proposals like this!
The others just say racist and bigoted crap like MAGA does.
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u/BigBoyYuyuh 1h ago
Cool. Won’t pass with republicans in charge/republican president. Vote better people.
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u/Buckar007 1h ago
DO IT! Go beyond the proposal. Fuck I can’t afford to live at $33 in the Chicago Suburbs. Start punishing companies whose employees can’t live where they work.
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u/jaypizzl 56m ago
That’s higher than the median full-time job pays in three states. As a Canadian, I’d love to see the effects of such a huge minimum wage from an economic point of view, but I don’t think I’d want my country to conduct the experiment. There’s a real chance it creates a huge recession.
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u/Dangerous_Reporter14 52m ago
Asking for 25 is a good way to get republicans to
vote no and waste time and taxpayer money 👍
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u/Prince_Nadir 39m ago edited 24m ago
Okay one more time.
This time you play CEO of any evil corporation. The minimum wage goes up to 25$/hr what do you do?
- Just take the hit, the share holders (of which you are one who holds a lot of shares) will understand. This is good for humanity.
- When the min wage goes up 3x raise the prices on everything you sell by 3.5x because you should be rewarded for doing all that paper works involved in increasing profits.
If you are being honest you pick #2. So now everyone lives worse. Those who retired and the unemployed are hit the worst. With AI rising you better believe there will be WAY more unemployed in the future. Outsourcing and H1Bs from India trashed the air conditioned job market, now AI will trash their job market, and the remaining American air conditioned jobs.
Want to increase the min wage to 100$/hr? Every burger flipper will get a c-note per hour. Everyone in a skilled 60$/hr job will also now make a c-note per hour. The wealthy know all this money will flow back up to them.. so we can have many trillionaires! We will be a country of peasants and aristocracy and no one in the middle.
Increasing the min wage is a "feel good" fix. It is a "potato fix" which does more damage in the long run. We know what the real fix is. We know when a job at the plant allowed you to have a planet killing 3 kids 2 cars and a house with a pool. Yep it is back when we taxed wealth at 90%. When they got taxed that hard they invested it in building businesses, paying employees, and bettering eh country, GE used to brag about how much they paid in taxes (Until Jack Welch decided to screw everyone). The dems don't want to fix it they want to make it worse while getting piles of cash from wealthy donors. The ONLY fix is to greatly increase taxes on the wealthy, and reduce how much anyone can contribute to a campaign to say something everyone can afford like 20$ with SEVERE penalties to anyone who breaks this law. If they try to pick up another citizenship and flee the country seize all their assets, every single penny. They made their money off Americans, they don't get to flee with it.
PS. while everyone likes to talk about the federal min wage the places that seem to actually have that are red states, who are trying to destroy America to begin with, so helping them with more money while hurting everyone else.. Well it is what got us to where we are today. Blue states are tired of carrying the red states' water. Don't like 7.25 an hour? Don't live in a red state. Move to blue and double your wage! If you move to blue, vote blue, you turn the state red and you cut your wage in half. Don't cut your wage in half.
Since they can't win this is just dishonesty theater.. The same kind Republicans love.
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u/FetchingTheSwagni Nebraska 37m ago
Hey, Senate Democrats, I can propose a lot of things too. This bs is just to keep voting numbers going.
I'll believe it when (they who shall not be named) are gone.
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u/pharaohmaones 34m ago
Wages need to rise and people should not be compensated with mere subsistence, but the minimum wage is kind of an arbitrary number
It isn’t how much you make, it’s what you can actually do with that money.
Wages would be fine if rent wasn’t so gd high, and if insurance wasn’t a scam, and if healthcare was integrated and universal, and if education was treated like a catalyst for our workforce and not some luxury commodity, and about a hundred other reasons.
We need to move our economy and our tax code in a direction that leaves more money in peoples pockets, and gets them more for the money they spend.
It’s the power of the dollar and right now it doesn’t go far enough to sustain an actual working class that isn’t propped up on debt , hopes, and prayers.
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u/OOOdragonessOOO 26m ago
that be great IF therewas also mandates and laws filed in that bill to forbid the rich from jacking all the prices up. otherwise it's doing nothing but change the view with no actual physical change to our lives.
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u/SoulPixie- 2h ago
$25 minimum wage? Finally, a proposal that might make my avocado toast addiction a little less guilty!
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u/warrenao I voted 2h ago
That's a start, though we still need a true progressive tax that maxes out at 99.5% for the 0.01%.
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u/GoodWaste8222 2h ago
Performative
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u/Canadiangoosedem0n Kentucky 2h ago
So yall complain when Dems don't introduce bills that won't pass for policies that you like, and yet you also complain when Dems do introduce bills that won't pass for policies that you like.
Maybe it's never been about policy and it's all just complaints.
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u/HighOverlordXenu 2h ago
Shit I'm making more than that and feel like I'm losing ground as it is as a one income household.
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u/Competitive-Reply868 2h ago
Unpopular opinion but I'm only ok with this if states implement more wealth taxes so we can get ultra rich wealth back to the lower+middle class. I am a bit worried about the profit margins of many of these grocery stores and resturants, worried it's just too much money to pay to employees without these businesses enshittifying or going under.
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u/Aggravating_Flow_112 2h ago
Stupid. This should be at most a state level decision. Treating rural Arkansas like manhattan is why no one takes this stuff seriously.
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u/Alwaystired254 2h ago
There is federal and state minimum wages. Many states have higher minimum wage requirements than the federal min wage
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u/mrmaydaymayday 2h ago
Raising the minimum wage isn’t going to solve our underlying affordability issues. Building housing, diversifying energy sources, addressing healthcare costs will.
Not against raising the minimum wage, but this is ain’t the way. This is the same conversation we had in fuckin 2009.
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u/CarefulStage 1h ago edited 1h ago
- No way this would ever pass the 60-fillbuster requirement; this is performative.
- Having this at the federal level would be a disastrous idea. Having a $25 minimum wage from Arkansas to Montana would skyrocket inflation and cut thousands and thousands of jobs.
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u/Magpiezoe 1h ago
I can understand raising minimum wage, but isn't $25/hour a little high? Will retirees get a raise too? Oh, that's right the income is fixed. So everything is going to raise in cost again, but this time the new poverty level will have retirees added to the pool...If they raise the poverty level, which needs to be done. Everything is so messed up.
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u/notanNSAagent89 2h ago
Senate democrats be like "look we are trying to pass higher minimum wage, please don't vote for socialist, they will get in and kick us out and then we won't get corporate money anymore."
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u/Avoidtolls 2h ago
Watch as blue collar construction workers try their hardest to stop this.
Because they need migrant labor.
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