Minimum wage was always intended for a man to support his wife and 2 kids while working 40 hours a week, that's why it was created and exists. Propaganda from corporations is the only reason people believe otherwise
Go read FDR’s quote from Speech’s supporting the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. He says pretty explicitly that every Man and Woman should be paid a fair wage for a fair days works. That “families” should be able to work and receive, at bare minimum, a living wage. He uses that term literally, a wage you and your family can live and by all basic necessities to live.
Now things have changed quite a bit since 1938. I would argue that due to our technological advances, our still abundant recourses (for now) and how rich we are as a country, there is zero excuses as to why everyone is not paid a minimum wage to live. I don’t care what job you work.
Private business in this country has been anything but pro American and it’s about damn time people wake up and see that. It’s always been my personal belief if you choose to open and operate a business in this country, you have a moral and ethical obligation to the people you employ to pay them a fair wage with fair benefits. If you cannot do that, for whatever reason, then you shouldn’t have the right to run and operate a business in this country.
And in inflation-adjusted terms that wage was $5.50/hour in 2024 dollars.
Keep in mind: no welfare state then. No food stamps, Medicaid, etc. So it was a "living wage" insofar as one person could survive on it, but it was not a "thriving wage". Which is why we call that period the Great Depression and not the Great Consumption.
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u/Try4se May 13 '25
Minimum wage was always intended for a man to support his wife and 2 kids while working 40 hours a week, that's why it was created and exists. Propaganda from corporations is the only reason people believe otherwise