Eh the federal (in the us) min wage in 76 was $2 so by that logic yeah. But if we look at the average wage (less income disparity then, still there but not crazy yet) in 1970 being $8,510 then doing the math (assuming a 40 hour work week) that is more like $4 an hour so the average person would need to make $47 an hour in 2026.
And the average wage earned in the us of a in 2024 is… $63,293. Doing the same math gets us $30.43 an hour. And that is with massive shifts in the gap between wages that are now prevalent.
Everyone focuses on the min wage part (as they think that is the easiest way to address this issue) but not the over all issues of labor not being valued at an amount that makes an economy work long term. The underlying issue is that companies see cutting costs as the best way to increase profits and payroll is the largest line item on almost every balance sheet. So upping the min wage helps but ultimately these places will still cut where they can (less staff, more work per staff, replacing staff with LLMs, etc.) and the issue will continue. In times past the min wage was there as a safety net, but most could expect more for their work, now min wage is more commonly what people expect to earn. Mix in under employment, unemployment that lasts long enough people don’t count as unemployed anymore, and people having multiple part time jobs vs full time and you have a massive long term issue.
The question the companies that rely in any way on selling things to people should be asking is; “Who can buy their products?” not “we expect to sell more every quarter then last quarter at ever increasing prices, why are you all looking at us like that?”
If minimum wage kept up with those figures we would have $23.50 minimum wage today.
Eh the federal (in the us) min wage in 76 was $2 so by that logic yeah. But if we look at the average wage (less income disparity then, still there but not crazy yet) in 1970 being $8,510 then doing the math (assuming a 40 hour work week) that is more like $4 an hour so the average person would need to make $47 an hour in 2026.
And the average wage earned in the us of a in 2024 is… $63,293. Doing the same math gets us $30.43 an hour. And that is with massive shifts in the gap between wages that are now prevalent.
Everyone focuses on the min wage part (as they think that is the easiest way to address this issue) but not the over all issues of labor not being valued at an amount that makes an economy work long term. The underlying issue is that companies see cutting costs as the best way to increase profits and payroll is the largest line item on almost every balance sheet. So upping the min wage helps but ultimately these places will still cut where they can (less staff, more work per staff, replacing staff with LLMs, etc.) and the issue will continue. In times past the min wage was there as a safety net, but most could expect more for their work, now min wage is more commonly what people expect to earn. Mix in under employment, unemployment that lasts long enough people don’t count as unemployed anymore, and people having multiple part time jobs vs full time and you have a massive long term issue.
The question the companies that rely in any way on selling things to people should be asking is; “Who can buy their products?” not “we expect to sell more every quarter then last quarter at ever increasing prices, why are you all looking at us like that?”
This is the important part to anchor the statement.
Its meaningless to say $11.74 then and $100 now without some reference to what it takes to earn that same $11.74 and $100.
edit: unless you’ve just been hoarding all your wealth as cash since 1970, in which case you got fucked.