This guy. My first “official job” in 1994 paid me $4.15/hour. Two years later I’d worked my way up to $4.80 an hour, only for the minimum wage to kick up to $4.75. I didn’t see a corresponding increase. I wouldn’t see $10/hour until I worked an overnight shift for a hotel chain in 2004.
He claims $6/hour as a cook somewhere between ’76-’79, which would be over $22/hour in today’s wages. My single mom of 2 might have been making $5-$6/hour as a cook in the mid 80’s but don’t hold me to that, it could have easily been less.
It’s not the idea of whether we should be raising the minimum wage, I’ll save that discussion for a different post. The point here is the disconnect from reality. His argument is that businesses would go out of business paying minimum wage even as his example has him making the equivalent of 3 times the current minimum wage as kid in the 70’s.
It’s ok to disagree on the merits of something, to not see eye to eye on various policies, there’s opportunity to come to an understanding, if not an agreement. It’s not ok when you can’t approach the discussion from a position of honesty, there’s no middle ground between dishonesty and reality.
I started working by bussing tables at the Star Family Restaurant for $1/hour & slowly moved up to cook – the big leagues for a kid like me– to earn $6/hour. Businesses in small towns survive on narrow margins. Mandating a $15 minimum wage would put many of them out of business. pic.twitter.com/izQDOGRAH1
— Senator John Thune (@SenJohnThune) February 24, 2021
