The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. The "cost of survival" in America rises every year. Last year we saw a COLA (cost of living adjustment) of only 2.5%. Next year it is forecast to be even smaller... 2.3% but, the basic wages for hourly workers still has not changed!​

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The last increase to the federal minimum wage in the United States occurred in July 2009, when it was raised from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour. Since then, it has remained unchanged at $7.25. I don't know anyone who can survive on $7.25 per hour!

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So, in spite of the costs continued to increase, especially with these absurd and dangerous tariffs, your dollar won't go as far this year as it did just last year.

 

Is it a matter of money? Do the corporations have enough money to pay their employees more? According to Pay Governance, "CEO pay rebounded +31% in 2010 after -9% and -13% decreases during the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, respectively. In 2021, we observed the largest CEO pay increase since 2010, which was supported by strong three-year TSR (+29% in 2021, +18% in 2020 and +31% in 2019)."

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According to the Economic Policy Institute, "in 2022, CEOs were paid 344 times as much as a typical worker in contrast to 1965 when they were paid 21 times as much as a typical worker. To illustrate just how distorted CEO pay increases have gotten: In 2021, CEOs made nearly eight times as much as the top 0.1% of wage earners in the U.S." So, money certainly is not an issue.

 

So, what is it then? Why hasn't Congress raised the federal minimum wage or better yet, replace it with a living wage?​

 

GREED! According to Open Secrets, "business interests outspent organized labor 14-to-1 during the 2022 election cycle, including $341.3 million in federal political campaigns."

 

A 2018 report stated that four in 10 Americans are struggling to pay for their basic needs such as groceries or housing, a problem even middle-class households confront, according to a new study from the Urban Institute. ​In terms of real money, in October 2023, the median listing home price in Los Angeles, CA was $1.2M, trending up 21.3% year-over-year. The median listing home price per square foot was $721. The median home sold price was $968.5K.

 

In Denver Colorado, the median sale price for a home was $554,990 in December 2022, according to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors (DMAR). (For context, the national median price in December was $366,900.) In October 2023, the median listing home price in Detroit, MI was $80K, flat year-over-year. The median sale price of a home in Washington, D.C. was $625,000 in July of 2023, according to figures from the District of Columbia Association of Realtors.​

 

So, real estate prices are all over the board and yet, the federal minimum wage has remained unchanged for years because Congress has not had the wherewithal to do the right thing for the right reasons. The late Senator Tom Coburn, R-OK, once said that "we have fixable problems in our country but we have a political class that doesn't want to address them."

 

What does that tell you?

 

The right thing is to eliminate the minimum wage, replacing it with a living wage that automatically adjusts to coincide with annual cost of living adjustments.​​​ Oh, and please, stop calling it the cost of living. In this environment, it is much better described as the "cost of surviving"!!!