Minimum-wage workers in 22 states are going to see more money in their paychecks in the new year.
Those increases will affect an estimated 9.9 million workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which estimates that those bumped wages will add up to an additional $6.95 billion in pay.
In addition to those 22 states, 38 cities and counties will also increase their minimum wages above state minimums on Jan. 1.
According to the Department of Labor, 20 states will maintain the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
And according to EPI, of the 17.6 million workers earning less than $15 an hour, nearly half live in those 20 states that continue to stick to the federal minimum wage — which has not changed since 2009.
The cost of living, however, has skyrocketed.
That it isn’t all 50 states is the real headline, if you ask me.
There are still over 20 states where it’s legal to pay you less than the cost of a cup of coffee.
Fully agree with the sentiment
The fuck kind of coffee you buying haha. Even the real fancy places round here are still maybe 4 bucks for a large coffee unless you’re basically making it a glorified milkshake.
E: sp, don’t write things 3 minutes after waking up kids
“coffee” - double mocha latte extra shot three pumps of whatever
They must mean a fancy morning milkshake
I got a grande soy chai, which isn’t even fancy other than switching to a non-dairy milk, at Starbucks the other day and it was like $6.50. Fuckin highway robbery.
That’s why I don’t go to Starbucks at all anymore. It’s trash, they union busy, and it’s become ridiculously expensive.
Buy a Moka pot. It’s easy and will take just as long as going through a Starbucks. Tastes better too.
The union thing has been a big reason why I don’t go, too. I make coffee at home or work 99.9% of the time, but I really wanted a chai that day. And then they told me the total and I said, “ooh never again.”
40hr/week all year is $15,059.20 at a wage of $7.25/hr, by the way.
Really important to always do this math.
Because minwage is so far below even basic living.
I don’t know why but I read, “really important to always do this METH.” and I was like, “well if you are only making 15,000+ a year then I wouldn’t blame them.”
And now youve come apon why impoverished rural areas are meth hotspots.
The federal minimum wage is a joke. Tie it to the cost of living or something so it stays up-to-date automatically, and politicians can’t use it as a bargaining chip.
It should be tied to local areas. Someone living in the middle of nowhere doesn’t need nearly as much money as someone living in the middle of a city. Tie minimum wage to local inflation, maybe on a county level.
You’re entirely correct. My only concern is that tying the federal minimum wage to a less important standard might encourage employers to manipulate that standard in order to keep wages down. Something like the Cost of Living Index (CLI) is major, and really hard to mess with, especially without having many complex consequences. In my eyes, that gives it some built in security. Plus, existing minimum wage laws (whether they’re state or federal) don’t take location into account.
Still, though, I’m not very knowledgeable about economics, and you raise an important point.
What the FUCK is the federal minimum wage still doing at 7.25/hr? It hasn’t been raised since 2009?!!
High school students today LITERALLY have the same federal minimum wage as when they were born.
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*Cries in Hoosier*
That is awesome to see. Wow.
Did I miss something, or does the article not say what the increase is?
Doesn’t look like they state the current or what it’s going to. Wild. Journalism has really gone down the shitter.
Each state is different. Per this article, NE is going up by $1.50/hr to $12 this year with more raises following each year for a few more.
I wondered if that was the case. They might have mentioned that in the article.
Wasn’t it 25 earlier this week?
nearly half live in those 20 states that continue to stick to the federal minimum wage
So less than half the people live in less than half of the states? This seems pretty proportional. Especially considering that more people in general live in $15+ minimum cities.
Am I reading that statistic wrong?
Also with this inflation, all I’m seeing is a greater need to tie a company’s top earner pay to bottom earner pay, or to company stock success or profitability or something.
in summary if you win the geographic lottery good for you otherwise it is your fault for not voting right
why even call this united states at this point if we are not going to have a strong federal law uniting all states
also biden’s “economic gains” were mostly in the states that did not go up on the minimum wage so yeah good job creating low wage jobs in areas that are already struggling and then going back on the campaign promise of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour which is now too low
