35) Labor DayTopic: Vote Harris / Walz & a Blue Congress for Raising the Federal Minimum Wage to $15 (at Least!)

Can a single person live on $7.25 an hour?

In 1990, the federal minimum wage law was $3.80/hr. In 2009 it was raised to $7.25/hr and has not been changed since then.

The truth is, the value of the minimum wage keeps going down. In fact, in 1968, the federal minimum wage was the equivalent of $12.31 in 2023 dollars!

The Minimum Wage is Way Below the Living Wage

A living wage is defined as the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs (food, housing, and other essential needs such as clothing). The goal of a living wage is to allow a worker to afford a basic but decent standard of living through employment without government subsidies. [Wikipedia]

An analysis of the living wage finds that: The living wage in the United States is $25.02 per hour, or $104,077.70 per year in 2022, before taxes for a family of four (two working adults, two children). (As calculated in December 2022 and reflecting a compensation being offered to an individual in 2023, compiling geographically specific expenditure data for food, childcare, health care, housing, transportation, and other necessities.) [Dr. Amy K. Glasmeier and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology]

Who Wants to Raise The Federal Minimum Wage?

The last vote in Congress to increase it to $15/hr was in March of 2021. It was an amendment to the Covid-19 Relief Bill. It failed in the US Senate, 58-42:

—->All 50 Republican Senators voted against it. They always have.

But so did 8 semi-Democratic Senators like Manchin, Hassan, Sheehan, King, and Sinema from reddish states. There need to be more solid Democrats in Congress or it will never happen!

DEMOCRATS	REPUBLICANS
Harris has explicitly supported raising the federal minimum wage on the campaign trail in Las Vegas, August 10, 2024. If Congress passes an increase, we can count on Harris to sign it.	Trump has opposed raising the minimum wage in the past, including 2016. In 2020 he said he’d consider it, but still argued that it was a bad idea. We have no idea what Trump would do if he wins.
The 2024 Democratic Party Platform explicitly supports raising the federal minimum wage.	The 2024 Republican Party Platform says absolutely nothing about a minimum wage.
Their Congressional votes show they mainly support a minimum wage increase.	Their Congressional votes show they all oppose any minimum wage increase.

Eight US States have raised the minimum wage to $15/hr or more. California is highest at $16/hr. But 21 States have done nothing so the $7.25 rate applies there; these are almost all “Red States.”

“The needs of 135 million poor and low-income Americans have been given too little attention.” ––Bishop William J. Barber, II, William J. Barber, II, DMin – National Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival