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Poorest US workers hit hardest by slowing wage growth

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Re: Poorest US workers hit hardest by slowing wage growth

#51

Post by agent_turtle »

kortilla wrote: post #48
user9999999999 wrote: post #23

the min wage is long overdue, its should be somewhere near $25/hr this is how you 'tax' billionaires

This is how you tax small business owners. The vast majority of businesses are not owned by billionaires

You view this as zero sum. How many new business owners would be created if people had enough to save? How many new businesses would exist if more money was flowing in the economy? Should businesses exist if they can't pay livable wages?

These aren't hypothetical questions. We have an answer for them all over the country where state minimum wages are rising in Democratic states.

Re: Poorest US workers hit hardest by slowing wage growth

#53

Post by keeda »

roywiggins wrote: post #43
EcommerceFlow wrote: post #38

[flagged]

As far as I can tell, the poorest workers' real wages grew, and grew faster than the median workers', on a relative basis , from 2019-2023: https://www.epi.org/publication/swa-wages-2023/

Yes, the simplistic "immigrants are competion" narratives always disregard the fact that immigrants also contribute to the economy and uplift it. For instance, there is a credible theory that the "immigration crisis" was instrumental in managing the inflation crisis: https://fortune.com/2024/04/12/immigration-inflation-economy...

Re: Poorest US workers hit hardest by slowing wage growth

#56

Post by stretchwithme »

yalogin wrote: post #24

What slowing wage growth? For the poorest the wages have essentially not increased for a long time right? It hasn’t even kept up with inflation. The recent bill actually makes it much worse.

Maybe dramatically increasing the supply of something lowers its price.

Re: Poorest US workers hit hardest by slowing wage growth

#57

Post by soganess »

hellgas00 wrote: post #9

"people earning roughly less than $806 a week — slowed to an annual rate of 3.7 per cent in June, down from a peak of 7.5 per cent in late 2022" With inflation dropping from 9.1% in June 2022 to 2.7% in June 2025, real wages for these low earners are now growing for the first time in years. The Financial Times failure to mention this context makes me question their motives.

Wage 'growth' after 2+ years of real wage decline (vs stagnation) is the coldest comfort to folks categorized as 'low earner'. Anyone ignoring that make me question their motives

Re: Poorest US workers hit hardest by slowing wage growth

#58

Post by murderfs »

user9999999999 wrote: post #23

the min wage is long overdue, its should be somewhere near $25/hr this is how you 'tax' billionaires

That's a good way of turning the poorest US workers into the poorest US unemployed. If you raise the minimum wage above the actual value of an employee, then they're just going to get fired. Even if they still provide more value than their being paid, it makes automating away their job more competitive.

California tried this with a $20/hr minimum wage in fast food restaurants: the next time you go into a McDonalds, count the number of empty cash registers and number of shiny new ordering kiosks: https://www.nber.org/papers/w34033

Re: Poorest US workers hit hardest by slowing wage growth

#59

Post by BergAndCo »

digitaltrees wrote: post #47
EcommerceFlow wrote: post #38

[flagged]

We could have a billion Americans and keep employing them productively. Immigration has been America’s superpower for 150 years. The real problem is monopoly firms that suppress wages of workers and innovation at the same time. The same monopolies that outsourced our manufacturing. All of which started with deregulation and tightening of immigration controls. So you’re wrong.

[dead]

Re: Poorest US workers hit hardest by slowing wage growth

#60

Post by murderfs »

agent_turtle wrote: post #51
kortilla wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is how you tax small business owners. The vast majority of businesses are not owned by billionaires

You view this as zero sum. How many new business owners would be created if people had enough to save? How many new businesses would exist if more money was flowing in the economy? Should businesses exist if they can't pay livable wages? These aren't hypothetical questions. We have an answer for them all over the country where state minimum wages are rising in Democratic states.

Is the answer a good one? https://www.nber.org/papers/w34033
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