Making $2.15 an hour certainly does sound worse than today’s minimum wage, which federal law mandates must be at least $7.25 an hour. But what Blackburn didn’t realize is that she accidentally undermined her own argument, since the value of the dollar has changed immensely since her teenage years. Blackburn was born in 1952, so she likely took that retail job at some point between 1968 and 1970. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator, the $2.15 an hour Blackburn made then is worth somewhere between $12.72 and $14.18 an hour in today’s dollars, depending on which year she started.Look, I was happy to get $1.80/hr. in 1973. $2.15 would have been the moon! She wasn't making minimum-wage!
Yglesias notes:
One thing Republicans could do in response to Obama's popular plan to help economically struggling Americans is say "yes" and vote for it. But obviously they won't do that.
So something else they could do is take up one of several alternative policies that economists tend to like better. They could embrace a larger Earned Income Tax Credit. They could embrace a Guaranteed Basic Income. They could target their assistance at families with a bigger refundable child tax credit. But they're not going to do any of those things either. Nor are they going to say that the real solution is expansionary monetary to create tight labor markets and the chance for workers to obtain higher market wages without government intervention. They're just going to offer nothing.
No comments:
Post a Comment