E.Warren - Minimum wage would be ~22 if it kept up with productivity

[radio rahiem]

Elizabeth Warren: Minimum Wage Would Be $22 An Hour If It Had Kept Up With Productivity

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) made a case for increasing the minimum wage last week during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing, in which she cited a study that suggested the federal minimum wage would have stood at nearly $22 an hour today if it had kept up with increased rates in worker productivity.

"If we started in 1960 and we said that as productivity goes up, that is as workers are producing more, then the minimum wage is going to go up the same. And if that were the case then the minimum wage today would be about $22 an hour," she said, speaking to Dr. Arindrajit Dube, a University of Massachusetts Amherst professor who has studied the economic impacts of minimum wage. "So my question is Mr. Dube, with a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, what happened to the other $14.75? It sure didn't go to the worker."

Dube went on to note that if minimum wage incomes had grown over that period at the same pace as it had for the top 1 percent of income earners, the minimum wage would actually be closer to $33 an hour than the current $7.25.

It didn't appear that Warren was actually trying to make the case for a $22 an hour minimum wage, but rather highlighting the results of a recent study that showed flat minimum wage growth over the past 40-plus years coinciding with surging inequality across a number of economic indicators.

Warren went on to argue that raising the federal minimum wage to over $10 an hour in incremental steps over the next two years -- a cause championed by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address and since taken up in the Senate -- would not be as damaging for businesses as some critics have argued.

 

[Robbie3000]

In before the worker hating chumps start screaming about government interference.

 

[Broke Wave]

in before people thinking she is advocating the minimum wage being 22 dollars an hour... SHE IS NOT

 

[Orbital-Fetus]

minimum wage in Australia is $15.96 an hour.

before you start talking about the currency exchange:

1.00 AUD = 1.03681 USD

it's a 3.7% difference in the value on an Aussie dollar to an American dollar.

 

[88m3]

Hopefully something comes from all of this, its unsustainable for people to live on these wages.

 

[Orbital-Fetus]

Hopefully something comes from all of this, its unsustainable for people to live on these wages.

it's fukking ridiculous is what it is.

 

[Starman]

Hopefully something comes from all of this, its unsustainable for people to live on these wages.

Unsustainable? What do you think is going to happen if there isn't an increase in minimum wage?

 

[MR. SNIFLES]

Unsustainable? What do you think is going to happen if there isn't an increase in minimum wage?

IT'S ALREADY HAPPENING. MORE AND MORE PEOPLE ARE MOVING IN TOGETHER. SINGLE PERSON HOUSEHOLDS ARE SHRINKING DAY BY DAY. COLLEGE KIDS ARE HAVING HARDER TIMES FINDING APARTMENTS BECAUSE NON COLLEGE KIDS ARE TAKING UP ALL THE ROOMS THAT HAVE NORMALLY BEEN RENTED OUT TO STUDENTS.

 

[el_oh_el]

IT'S ALREADY HAPPENING. MORE AND MORE PEOPLE ARE MOVING IN TOGETHER. SINGLE PERSON HOUSEHOLDS ARE SHRINKING DAY BY DAY. COLLEGE KIDS ARE HAVING HARDER TIMES FINDING APARTMENTS BECAUSE NON COLLEGE KIDS ARE TAKING UP ALL THE ROOMS THAT HAVE NORMALLY BEEN RENTED OUT TO STUDENTS.

Damn right. Corporations are just to greedy to spread the wealth to the bottom feeders unfortunately..
For example, Walmart. One of the most paid companies in the world. How much do the grunts make? Not much more than minimum wage.
Same goes for apple..and they might be a bit worse.

 

[Starman]

IT'S ALREADY HAPPENING. MORE AND MORE PEOPLE ARE MOVING IN TOGETHER. SINGLE PERSON HOUSEHOLDS ARE SHRINKING DAY BY DAY. COLLEGE KIDS ARE HAVING HARDER TIMES FINDING APARTMENTS BECAUSE NON COLLEGE KIDS ARE TAKING UP ALL THE ROOMS THAT HAVE NORMALLY BEEN RENTED OUT TO STUDENTS.

So people who cant afford to live alone wont live alone?

Damn right. Corporations are just to greedy to spread the wealth to the bottom feeders unfortunately..
For example, Walmart. One of the most paid companies in the world. How much do the grunts make? Not much more than minimum wage.
Same goes for apple..and they might be a bit worse.

I don't think low skilled workers or people who earn the minimum wage would appreciate being called "Bottom Feeders"

 

[MR. SNIFLES]

Damn right. Corporations are just to greedy to spread the wealth to the bottom feeders unfortunately..
For example, Walmart. One of the most paid companies in the world. How much do the grunts make? Not much more than minimum wage.
Same goes for apple..and they might be a bit worse.

THE WORST THING HAPPENED WHEN THEY LAID OFF ALL THESE PEOPLE AND THEY REALIZED THEY CAN GET THE SAME WORK WITH HALF THE WORKERS. NOW THAT THE COMPANIES ARE RECOVERING THEY ARE GETTING HUGE PROFITS AND NOT INCREASING THEIR WORKFORCE BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE TO. THE GOVERNMENT CAN'T MAKE THEM HIRE AND THEY KNOW IT.

 

[Starman]

THE WORST THING HAPPENED WHEN THEY LAID OFF ALL THESE PEOPLE AND THEY REALIZED THEY CAN GET THE SAME WORK WITH HALF THE WORKERS. NOW THAT THE COMPANIES ARE RECOVERING THEY ARE GETTING HUGE PROFITS AND NOT INCREASING THEIR WORKFORCE BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE TO. THE GOVERNMENT CAN'T MAKE THEM HIRE AND THEY KNOW IT.

A company doesn't exist to employ people. Sorry to be the one to break it to you.

 

[Field Marshall Bradley]

A company doesn't exist to employ people. Sorry to be the one to break it to you.

How many companies are there without a workforce?

 

[Rarely-Wrong Liggins]

You'd be surprised the amount of hate she got for this. Nevermind....no you wouldn't. This is Amurikkka after all.

Slightly related note.....

I read an article about the "myth" of stagnant wages and you know how that CAC opened up his piece () paraphrased of course....

"The common liberal talking point that wages have been stagnant since 1970 is nothing but a myth because you'll see that the average wage has increased little since the 1950s"

I have to find the article when I get home. But that was close to what dude said.

 

[Rarely-Wrong Liggins]

A company doesn't exist to employ people. Sorry to be the one to break it to you.

If it looks stupid and sounds stupid it must be a conservative talking point.