OMG Folks. When did we lose our sense of reason? We were on vacation in Colorado. It was like watching from the Crazy Train. Everywhere you look there are signs: HELP WANTED. Along with those, there are others which proclaim: $15.00 MINIMUM WAGE at fast food joints. At one McDonalds there was even a sign: HOUSING AVAILABLE. We cam upon a sandwich shop that was only opened at the drive-thru window because they couldn’t get enough staff to open the dining room even though they were offering $15 an hour. These are entry level jobs. When did we equate “minimum wage” with “living wage?”
My first job, driving a grain truck – $2.00 an hour – of course I was just a teen. The corporate job that gave me the layoff – I started as an hourly employee for $3.35 in 1985. The Federal Minimum Wage was introduced in 1938 at 25 cents an hour. It took 23 years for it to break a dollar an hour, which was in 1961 when it went up to $1.15. In the first fifty years of its existence the minimum wage rose by $3.10. In 2009, the FMW reached $7.25 per hour, an increase of $3.90 in a twenty-eight year period. If the FMW were to go to $15 now as many are clamoring for, it would be a $7.75 increase over a twelve year period. Wages are the largest expense a business has, and rising wages, while initially helping employees, raises the cost of living for the very employees it is intended to help.
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