Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

Workers are stuck in a low wage, high cost, rut. We’ve been here before. During the Great Depression labor frequently was paid too little. Franklin Delano Roosevelt responded by establishing a wage floor in 1938 by passing the minimum wage. Since being introduced it was then raised 22 times up to 2009, on average roughly every 3 years. To punctuate this point, let’s list those years when it was increased to keep up with labor productivity and household costs for American workers: 1939, 1945, 1950, 1956, 1961, 1963, 1967, 1968,1974, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1990, 1991, 1996, 1997, 2007, 2008, 2009.

And then history stopped. Since 2009 the minimum wage has been locked down. That’s 16 years, soon to be 17. Just how low is today’s minimum wage? Adjusting for inflation, today’s minimum wage is slightly lower than it was in 1945. That’s right. Our minimum wage today is lower than it was 80 years back! Moreover, our labor productivity is over 3 times greater today than in 1945. And 50 years ago in 1975, inflation adjusted, the US minimum wage as $13.09. Meanwhile, today it sits at a paltry $7.25 and has lost a full third of its inflation-adjusted value since being raised to that level 16 years back.

Regardless of numbers, some still defend America’s current abandoning of minimum wage increases. Arguments........

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