comment: >
  
  I dislike discussions about raising the federal minimum wage. A minimum wage appropriate for California won’t be appropriate for Mississippi. And even within a state like California a minimum wage appropriate for the SF Bay Area won’t be appropriate for the Central Valley or the mountains in the east of the state. The federal minimum should be set low so that doesn’t disrupt the economies or poorer states. Something easy to remember like $10/hr.
context: He brought up a $15 minimum wage back around 2015. That's about 8 years ago. In todays dollars a $15 minimum wage would be almost $19/hour. >
  
  Yeah that was always going to be the trap. Fighting tooth and nail for X wage would always be just in time for that number to no longer be the one you need. >
  
  Isn’t the usual answer to that issue tying it to inflation? 
  If not changing it every year, then consistent updates on a set schedule (2 years, 5 years, whatever works). >
  
  That's pretty much the only way to do it. The problem of course, is that non-minimum wage jobs wouldn't keep up. So those businesses that pay above minimum wage would be in a constant fight to stay ahead of it. They don't want to do that, which is why you see campaigns comparing burger flippers to paramedics and you're NOT supposed to come away with the conclusion that paramedics should just be paid more. >
  
  Burger flippers go thru training too ya know. >
  
  Do you really believe that both jobs should be paid the same though? >
  
  Both jobs should be paid enough to live on. Honestly, at this point, minimum wage should be like 25-30 dollars an hour to keep up with the insane increase of housing and food costs in the last 10-20 years. >
  
  100 % agree >
  
  It's more that we need to embrace change beyond paychecks. The right to life, liberty, and happiness must mean the right to food, shelter, education, health care at a minimum. Paycheck adjustments should be the determining factor between a US based vacation vs a European vacation, not whether someone gets to sleep in their car or under a bridge. >
  
  You nailed it with those four things (food, education, healthcare and housing).
  People who have security in those areas can live a modest but dignified life. But we are witnessing runaway profiteering in all of these areas, and it is destroying our society. 
  Can we please just be allowed to have an apartment that's not run down and bug infested, get a basic college education, see a doctor when we are sick and eat three meals a day including a few fresh vegetables?
  No, because it's more important for your boss's boss to buy an airbnb property and send their kids to private school >
  
  Where it’s really gonna start hurting us is in 10-20 years when multiple generations stopped pursuing starting their own business, pursuing their talents/ interests, etc because they had to get 3 shit paying job. It’s gonna become a compounding drain on our economy >
  
  Smart people will leave too, it's called brain drain. Just imagine us politics when Europe is making all of the big tech innovations, when the Google of the day is from France, the Apple from Germany.  Let's not even get started on what the meltdown would look like if it was China or Russia instead of Europe. >
  
  My industry is big in German and that’s what I’m planning on doing once I finish my masters >
  
  He is correct.  $$15 an hour won't work either. 
  
  
  $15/hr full time = 31000/year
  
  
  $26,000 after taxes
  
  
  Rent is $18,000 ($1500/mo)
  
  
  Food is $3600 ($300/mo)
  
  
  Electricity + Phone + Internet is $3000 ($250/month)
  
  
  Congratulations, you are out of money.
  
  
  Clothes? Gas? Car Payment? Maintenance? Insurance? Entertainment/Leisure? Unexpected expenses?
  Oh...don't forget that you have no health insurance and are one accident/medical emergency away from total financial collapse.
  u/PorkTornado >
  
  
  Food is $3600 ($300/mo)
  
  if you are lucky.  food for my entire family is $1600 a month, and that isn't eating healthy. >
  
  Is your family 7 people? >
  
  4, and its about $400 a month each right now.  2 years ago it was about $120 each per month, and we could afford to eat healthy. >
  
  You must understand it's hard to believe your groceries have gone up over 3x and you're eating worse now.
  Why have I not experienced such a thing in MD? >
  
  
  Why have I not experienced such a thing in MD?
  
  good question.  the cost of things like meat here has quadrupled.  a pound of good lean ground beef 2 years ago was about $2.  now a pound of good quality lean ground beef is $8, or the "cheap stuff" is $5 per pound.  I have to buy eggs from a friend who has chickens, else I would be paying $8 per dozen right now.  bread from the store is now $5 per loaf, or if you get it from a local bakery its just shy of $4.  the local bakery told me that flour and wheat products have gone up an insane amount over the last year.  a box of mac and cheese(like kraft crap) went from $0.49 a box to $1.99 a box. I wish I knew why yours hasn't gone up, but mine has, by a lot. >
  
  San Diego here and I have experienced the same thing. Those prices are consistent across all food, especially healthy food. Everything, even citrus. Except bananas have stayed about the same. >
  
  Fruit has gone insane here. Apples are 5 per pound, bananas are 4 per pound, oranges are 12 per pound, it sucks. >
  
  I'd love to make $2/hour more than I make now. >
  
  My dad is a few years younger than Bernie. When he was in college, he had a part-time student job that paid $6/hr at UCLA.
  Adjusted for inflation that's $38/hr... no degree, no experience. That's more than some professors make in the US today with a PhD and tenure.
  No wonder millennials and genZ are pissed. >
  
  Xennial here, I got to live at the end of single income families with "low income" jobs. A cart pusher could support a family of 4 (maybe putting in a bit of overtime).
  I got to see it. But that world was gone when I graduated. >
  
  Build housing at the rate of the 1950s and let $14/hour be livable.   
  The US can't maintain this insane housing racket.  Build millions of units for efficient communities in locations ideal for the global warming future.  Prepare for the mass coastal migration we have created while solving the housing crisis and greatly reducing cost of living. >
  
  Hell, just start building houses that are affordable. They only thing I see around here are luxury apartments going up everywhere. >
  
  And most of those luxury apartments are complete pieces of shit - I’ve been in 3 or 4 of them over the last few months for extended periods and the quality is worse than horrendous for an absurd amount of rent
  Their facade is flashy and appears “luxury” to attract new tenants, but the actual quality is some of the worst I’ve seen in my lifetime >
  
  Hell, 25 an hour barely lets me save anything. After bills, rent, utilities, and the like I still feel like I’m just breaking even. >
  
  He’s right. Needs to be at least $25 in some parts of the country with the cost of living now. >
  
  Needs to scale dynamically with the cost of living. There I said it. People need to feel like they can make ends fucking meat with ONE job. No one deserves to be poor in America if they have the drive to work. >
  
  If we can measure cost of living, we already know what the minimum wage should be. Lock it to inflation and be done with it.
  Next up, maybe figure out a system where people aren't coerced into working to meet their basic needs. But that's a radical leftist idea in this hellscape. >
  
  Then controlling inflation would suddenly become the primary goal, and fiscal policy would become a game of manipulating the official inflation rate. >
  
  No, if the rich want to try to extract more profits from us when we have an inflation adjusted minimum wage then we win.
  It's simple math. Inflation goes up, wages go up, capital class tries to extract profit from increased wages, inflation goes up. They will devalue their assets in a vicious loop until we all make a minimum wage of a billion a year or something.
  Let them eat their selves, my ass is protected from inflation in this hypothetical. >
  
  only minimum wage is protected.  and so every job becomes minimum wage.  that's how you make soviet russia.  it doesn't end well >
  
  But whose fault would that be? Those dastardly workers or the hapless capitalists chasing profit? >
  
  just pointing out that rampant inflation where everyone makes minimum wage might sound good, but in the end everyone suffers and society falls apart.  that's worse.  it doesn't matter whose at fault.  you can sit smuggly saying that it's the fault of the rich but that won't help you when you have to bribe the local official for just a little bit more bread for your kid. >
  
  It's not supposed to sound good. Ignoring that a minimum-wage pegged to inflation is never going to happen: It's a threat directed at the capitalists at the top. >
  
  you're threatening rich people with the creation of a serf/lord system.  it's not really a threat >
  
  I remember when I was once against raising the minimum wage until I was taught about it going up with production until it just didn't. There is no excuse to not raise minimum wage at this point in juncture. >
  
  I live in a tourist area, and our McDonalds already pays $17 to start. >
  
  I do wonder how many people are actually making minimum wage now. It’s so far below market, and most states have higher minimums, so it’s almost completely irrelevant. >
  
  According to BLS statistics (warning: pdf), about 1.1 million people are being paid at or below the federal minimum wage. 
  
  In 2021, 76.1 million workers age 16 and older in the United States were paid at hourly rates, representing 55.8 percent of all wage and salary workers. Among those paid by the hour, 181,000 workers earned exactly the prevailing federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. About 910,000 workers had wages below the federal minimum. >
  
  That statistic is going to be skewed because most states minimum wage is higher than the federal.  And they are states with large populations like California and New York. >
  
  Did you not read the comment above it? >
  
  That's what happens when it's been almost 14 years since the last minimum wage increase. >
  
  If it helps at all, 75% less people make minimum wage (or below) now than they did in 2010 >
  
  $15 in 1994 is worth $30 today. Just saying. 
  Extreme inflation, worker productivity has been skyward for decades and wages have been stagnant for many. >
  
  Yeah I mean at this point we’ve been having this conversation so long 15 is a lowball. Even the proposed 17 is too >
  
  25 is even still pretty tuff to be fair. Im in the Seattle area. Hardly see anyone offer under 20. Don't get me wrong I do see less than 20. But for sure they are stepping stone jobs.  I'm job seeking most atm I find lately 25 per hour is becoming nee floor wage. I just passed on 55k salary. So some ppl are doing better. But saddly 25per hour or 55k salary is easy to live alone on. >
  
  No shit.  However, don't let perfection get in the way of progress.  Also, tie it to inflation adjusted annually while you're doing it. >
  
  Cue the cries of FIRST THEY WANTED 15 NOW IT'S 25. WHY NOT GIVE THEM A BILLION DOLLARS AN HOUR. malarkey the reps love to spill. >
  
  Don't fight for a minimum wage. Fight for all our basic needs to be met. Food, water, shelter, medical care, sanitary products, clothes. Then introduce wage proportion limits. Your top paid person cannot make 10x more than your lowest paid. Watch wages equal out. >
  
  And that includes ALL ways to be paid. Stock options, benefits, etc, count.
  And it's lowest paid including all subcontracted companies, meaning you can't just subcontract out every single position to a shell corp where the paper-CEO is getting paid 100,000 a year while getting paid 5,000,000 in the head company. Nope, your subcontracted janitor gets 15 dollars an hour? You can only pay the CEO 150. >
  
  This man is right. >
  
  The answer isn't increasing the minimum wage, or any wage. It's about decreasing the cost of living.  Increasing wages only increases inflation, and keeps us in a perpetual loop of always needing more. >
  
  No, raising minimum wage only cuts into millionaires pockets. All of the giant corps would do just fine making fewer profits. The ceo's of these places make millions upon millions. When I see items go from 9 dollars to 28 dollars at places like Home Depot it's not because of inflation it's because of greed. >
  
  He’s not wrong. It’s closer to $15 where I live and that’s not nearly enough to pay rent, let alone bills or food >
  
  Y'all took too long. >
  
  Modern American politics in a nutshell: a nasty, partisan battle for an outdated solution that should have happened a decade or more ago, may still not happen (or at least will require further erosion of the solution via "compromise" to satisfy ideologues) and, like many (most?) modern problems, traces back to Ronald Reagan. >
  
  My man! >
  
  i remember Macro econ in college doing min wage calculations using the old truman logic "one man working 40h/week able to support himself and one and a half dependents anywhere in the nation" This is back in 2010 during the recession recovery. We came up with 26/H as an after tax value to have the same purchasing power and not need government assistance. 
  The great part was after our professor argued that yes we are right, the wage should never be that high because it would negatively effect corporate profits and reduce capital on wall street... >
  
  Wages, including minimum wage, should match productivity. What if, instead of being expressed in dollars, wages were expressed in relation to the country's per-capita GDP? The dollar equivalent would get automatically adjusted each time either population and/or GDP are officially calculated, eliminating much of the need for constant wage re-evaluation. >
  
  No amount of minimum wage will do it. The system is set up to inflate around wages. You could give everyone $100 an hour and a carton of milk would suddenly cost $50. >
  
  Gonna start shit by saying it, but if Biden is impeached over the classified documents thing I hope Sanders will give it one more try in ‘24. Even if he doesn’t make it, his presence seems to push the discourse in a better direction. >
  
  Index the minimum wage to the cost of living.  Mw should be enough to pay for a place to live, needed utilities, food and necessities plus a minimal extra  35% to invest, save, etc. >
  
  I make $20.75 an hour and it's still not enough. >
  
  Legit should be double that. >
  
  Minimum wage for basic human survival is only going to keep going up with how greedy our corporations are. Corporations control the world and the only thing they understand is the bottom line. 
  Fast profits will always be chosen over anything else. Even a larger long term profit is overlooked. Businesses are so greedy that they can consume themselves. 
  Get control of your corporations if you want to change anything. >
  
  I make $14 an hour RIGHT NOW and it’s no where near enough to cut it. >
  
  Good for him! Fight for the people Bernie >
  
  I remember years ago McDonald’s employees protesting for $15 and everyone laughed, but here’s $14 now. He’s right, it’s not enough. They could have said $20 and it’d still be shy >
  
  Should burger flippers make more than 20 dollars an hour?
  That can't be what you're suggesting >
  
  Just humans, don’t matter what the job is. Couldn’t imagine dehumanizing someone depending on what their job is. Especially if they are doing the task of preparing you food, that you’re too lazy to make yourself. Would take a pretty rank personality to do so >
  
  Sen Bernie Sanders isn't going to be able to do anything about it.
  People need to wake the hell up. As long as we have Republicans in office anywhere Americans will be poor and minorities will be attacked. >
  
  If minimum wage kept us with the economic growth/inflation, it’d be at $26 an hour >
  
  Bernie really needs to spend more time working with progressive groups in individual states to raise the state minimum wage rather than yelling into the wind on the federal minimum which won't happen until there are 60 Dem Senators (at least) which is a few election cycles away.  State minimums are easier to raise and are already being done in most blue states but he has outreach in a lot of other states that could benefit from it. >
  
  25 to stay alive >
  
  What would be the implications if we set a reasonable minimum wage and then tied that minimum wage to inflation. Updating the wage, quarterly, 6mo, 12mo? Whatever makes the most sense.
  Another problem I see in minimum wage hikes are always the same. A lot of back breaking industry will never find workers unless they adjust their pay to keep a gap between their wages and the minimum. Add to that, medical insurance costs eating more and more of our paychecks every year and there's no wonder there's massive erosion of the middle class.
  Ultimately, I feel like most people see the reality. The whole system has been rigged to perpetuate wealth for the wealthy and the working class is facing a Mountain. We need massive policy shifts. >
  
  Give ‘em hell, Bernie! >
  
  Okay. I’m just going to come out and say it. $50 an hour and then we wait a century for everything else to catch up. 
  It’s kind of what they’re doing with the national debt but actually useful. >
  
  $50 an hour is the living wage for a single parent of one child in New York >
  
  Then let’s do it. :) >
  
  Duh >
  
  $7.25 until 2025 at the earliest.  What a joke >
  
  $14/h might have been worth it 10 years ago, but its too late now for that little of a change. >
  
  Give me my 30/hr.
  Was making 15/hr 15 years ago. >
  
  neither does 15, and neither does 17. >
  
  Twice that isn't a living wage anywhere in the country, even for basic needs, healthcare, sanitation, even if you're living on ramen and keep your power bill low.  
  Keeping in mind the extra costs associated with someone who chooses a shitty low cost apartment in a shitty part of the city (repairs cost more, place can be broken into more, mold is less likely to be dealt with properly by landlords, broken plumbing isn't fixed as quickly or well, air conditioner breaks more often, pests make you sick more often) all that stuff that costs the poor so much more than if they could afford a better place. >
  
  Wait are we talking twice $14 as in $28/hr not being a livable wage? >
  
  When was the last time a minimum wage bill was brought up in the senate. I feel like all they do is just "talk" about it. They should bring it up once a week until it passes. >
  
  That ship sailed 6 years ago. We should be at like 20$ an hour. Or just try to find ways to make living cost less. >
  
  thanks bernie, the only boomer i'll support >
  
  I wish we could have an age-tiered minimum wage. A 16 year old is just fine making $15/hr because 99/100 they are living with an adult who also works. However, $20/hr for 18 and over seems very reasonable. 
  Above all, we just need to do something. Bernie may not think $14 is high enough, but $7.50 is way too damn low, so let's just start somewhere. >
  
  No, workers are workers. Pay them for their labor. >
  
  In general, a 16 year old is going to be less productive than a 25 year old. Of course not always, but as a general statement no one can disagree. I also think there is great value in teenagers having part time jobs to learn to work and make money and manage a budget, etc.  Employers should be encouraged to make space for teenagers to work for them part time.  It's good for society, in my opinion. >
  
  This is where the wage difference between part time and full time workers comes in. The problem is that many companies have figured out they can schedule two part time workers per full time and stop paying benefits, and they abuse this to scam workers. >
  
  Right, which is why I think a teenager in high school can and should be subject to different labor laws vs an adult.  A child doesn't need benefits, like health insurance. >
  
  
  A child doesn't need benefits, like health insurance.
  
  Do children not get sick? Do children not have accidents and injuries? Do all parents purchase health insurance for their children? >
  
  Children are covered under their parent's insurance until the age of 26. >
  
  Generally that's only if the kid is still schooling. >
  
  We chose Biden over this guy. A guy who could have kept us focused on real issues. It's unfortunately probably true that he wouldn't have beat Trump. But I still think about how it would be nice to have a president that has some empathy and sympathy for the working class. 
  Biden has some nice slogans about being pro labor though. Too bad it was all hot air. Motherfucker wouldn't even fight for sick days for rail workers. >
  
  Even more Bernie choose Biden over himself, he pulled out and fully endorsed him just to satisfy politics. Maybe if someone just showed people that they were putting the good of the people over the good of a party it might get better. >
  
  
  just to satisfy politics.
  
  So you're saying that he should have kept back and divided the vote in a close election where Donald fucking Trump was the alternative.
  That's fucking stupid. >
  
  Let’s get to $14. It’s better than $7.25 isn’t?
  And when the sky doesn’t fall you push for more. Don’t turn your nose at $14 so that nothing gets done! >
  
  Pragmatism: get it to $15, then once it's at $15 raise it again to $20, then raise it one more time to $25
  Progressivism: it has to be exactly $25/hour, anything less than perfect is unacceptable, if we pass the $14 now they won't be willing to negotiate another raise in the future
  Basically the only two mindsets behind different takes on the minimum wage that I see here.
  I personally think minimum wage should federally be set at $17.50/hour, and pegged to the cost of living based on your ZIP code. So people in Los Angeles will get like $24/hour because rent is extremely expensive there, and people in rural Arkansas will make $17.50/hour because it's good enough for their lower COL.
  Edit: instantly downvoted, I guarantee you it was the progressives who did it >
  
  Well their all or nothing stance on the minimum wage has done nothing so they can feel superior to us dumb dumbs while it stays $7.25. >
  
  That's my main issue. Their ultra-puritan "we either get exactly what we want, or nobody gets anything" approach is unironically really, really toxic. Progressives need to be more pragmatic, otherwise they'll never get ANYTHING EVER.
  I have actually personally moved away from being a "Bernie/AOC tier progressive", and as I get more life experience and knowledge I find myself gradually solidifying into a weird "in-between" political spot that's further to the left than a liberal, but not as far as a progressive.
  I guess that's what the Socdems are? Further to the left than a liberal, but not as far to the left as a progressive. >
  
  I think AOC has moved away from the Bernie progressive in many ways. She now has seen how laws get passed and it usually involves compromise. >
  
  That would be a good thing, if she wised up and became more pragmatic. >
  
  I don’t know where in the United States anyone can function out of poverty working full-time for $29K pre-tax >
  
  Honestly they should be making minimum wage. I bet they would get a whole lot more work done instead of bickering with each other. >
  
  Put down whatever you're smoking, Bernie. 
  There will never be a minimum pay wage like that, ever. >
  
  hi ow much does he pay his staff? >
  
  $15 per hour for the past 4 years >
  
  So everyone can suffer more from this inflation?  $200~ per a supermarket trip is already killing us >
  
  Ay sport minimum wage hasn't gone up since 2009 and we're still dealing with inflation.  Gee golly it's almost like pay doesn't directly equate to inflation >
  
  Y'all got a bridge? >
  
  $14/hr is especially not going to do it considering the rate of inflation and the time it'll take for Congress to get around to doing it. >
  
  Cracks me up when I still here boomers complaining about "and they want $15 an hour to work in a kitchen!"
  No hunny... that was over a decade ago. When you said it would just drive up prices. When minimum wage was the same it is now. $20 an hour is a starvation wage in most metropolitan areas and guess what? Inflation has been chugging along all-the-same. >
  
  No but a $14 minimum wage  increase  would be $21.25. I’d call that a livable wage. If the lowest minimum wage is $7.25, let’s maybe just add $14 to that? >
  
  Can the fed give teachers a raise please? >
  
  If wages had kept pace with inflation in the past few decades, the minimum wage would be well over 20/hr.
  If we are operating in a way that doesn't allow all people to earn a living wage, then we need to figure out how to support the people shut out of the labor market, if we decide to continue to produce goods at unfair wages. >
  
  There should be a percentage that the lowest paid employee makes compared to the top paid employee and it should increase through the jobs. >
  
  At this point, they can’t even think about raising the minimum wage without some sort of national anti-price gouging laws to go along with it….. >
  
  We've been trying for $15 for so long that now it needs to be $20. >
  
  The wage isn’t the only problem, it’s the devaluation, inflation, and lack of consumer protections. Raising the wage means nothing if the market is free to raise the price of everything at will. >
  
  Right -- but federal minimum wage is 7.25 right now, which is a joke.  I realize the idea is that states set their own minimum wages as they all have their own diverse economies which can very from state to state.  I think we can agree that the floor of 7.25 is not adequate no matter where you live.  $14 would be a start.  I would be surprised if our leaders would approve this though sadly. >
  
  You’re not a real progressive unless you support 100$ per hour minimum wage >
  
  In many places, $15 an hour is starting wage for college grads. Fields like design have been underpaid for decades. It's strange to see minimum wage just a dollar off starting "white collar" wages. >
  
  Honest question. Where in the us is the actual wage this low?
  I think McDonald's in northern Minnesota is paying 16 starting out. >
  
  What we need are programs that can relocate people (especially families) to lower cost of living areas. It may both enable a family to afford a nice place and may bring enough bodies in to turn R into D… >
  
  I'm torn, I think I'd rather be dirt poor than have to live and work in MAGA country. >
  
  The idea here is to end maga country. I’m in maga country. Been fighting the fight for many years. Wish I counted as a person too. >
  
  If minimum wage increases, so should everyone’s salaries. >
  
  Man, I don't care if a McDonald's line cook makes the same as me. I just want us both to be able to afford living without 6 roommates. >
  
  When is he going to retire he’s so fucking useless