In the US, wage growth has been above inflation for a long time with the exception of a couple of years. Since 2021, real wages have only shrunk a small amount.
That doesn’t mean that individual sectors (e.g. fast food) haven’t gone up more than other things, but this is more relevant than asset prices.
Then why is 15/hr still such a hot topic of resistance when that number was a living wage minimum amount decades ago? And what is the federal minimum wage still at? Then there’s the issue of underemployment in both lowered expectations of what’s available for a person’s skill set, and also how many hours are actually available at whatever the rate is offered (i.e., if you give an employee a job at 20/hr but only give them 15 hours a week, that’s not a living wage).
There’s a lot of problems beyond just wage growth, and I would suggest that even if wages did start increasing faster than inflation for a while now, that just means they’re “only” too low a little less. People wouldn’t be working multiple jobs for each household member to make ends meet if wages were close to appropriate for cost of living needs.
Tbh I’m not sure what the minimum wage has to do with the overall picture. Obviously it should keep pace with wage increases.
The picture for wages overall is not what you say - annual incomes, not just hourly incomes, are not down over the last ten years. Yes, some people are having to worry multiple jobs or are unable to find enough work or specific costs in their life mean the overall picture doesn’t reflect their situation, and there is a need to fix that.
But explaining reduced revenue at fast food places with “everyone is poor now due to inflation” is in contradiction with the facts, and you haven’t brought up anything to rescue it.
Are you asking for references on US real wages? I can find em when I’m at a computer but it’s pretty easy to search for. (I use image search to find charts usually)
In the US, wage growth has been above inflation for a long time with the exception of a couple of years. Since 2021, real wages have only shrunk a small amount.
That doesn’t mean that individual sectors (e.g. fast food) haven’t gone up more than other things, but this is more relevant than asset prices.
Then why is 15/hr still such a hot topic of resistance when that number was a living wage minimum amount decades ago? And what is the federal minimum wage still at? Then there’s the issue of underemployment in both lowered expectations of what’s available for a person’s skill set, and also how many hours are actually available at whatever the rate is offered (i.e., if you give an employee a job at 20/hr but only give them 15 hours a week, that’s not a living wage).
There’s a lot of problems beyond just wage growth, and I would suggest that even if wages did start increasing faster than inflation for a while now, that just means they’re “only” too low a little less. People wouldn’t be working multiple jobs for each household member to make ends meet if wages were close to appropriate for cost of living needs.
Tbh I’m not sure what the minimum wage has to do with the overall picture. Obviously it should keep pace with wage increases.
The picture for wages overall is not what you say - annual incomes, not just hourly incomes, are not down over the last ten years. Yes, some people are having to worry multiple jobs or are unable to find enough work or specific costs in their life mean the overall picture doesn’t reflect their situation, and there is a need to fix that.
But explaining reduced revenue at fast food places with “everyone is poor now due to inflation” is in contradiction with the facts, and you haven’t brought up anything to rescue it.
Why are you any different? I haven’t seen you back up a single claim you’ve made in response.
Are you asking for references on US real wages? I can find em when I’m at a computer but it’s pretty easy to search for. (I use image search to find charts usually)