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The US Minimum Wage Shouldn’t Be Raised

Even if it was raised right now to 15 or 20 or 30 dollars we'd be right back here arguing that it's not enough to live on in a few decades if not sooner. Moreover what is a living wage in one part of the country is not a living wage in a different part. Someone living and working in Manhattan, New York or San Francisco, California needs more money than someone living in Mobile, Alabama or Augusta, Georgia. If you just raise it to one number across the board people living in expensive areas still won't be able to get by and employers in less expensive areas won't be able to pay their workers. Instead calculate a living wage for each county. Announce in January of each year that it is the new minimum wage for that area and employers need to start paying them that come April. It…


Even if it was raised right now to 15 or 20 or 30 dollars we'd be right back here arguing that it's not enough to live on in a few decades if not sooner. Moreover what is a living wage in one part of the country is not a living wage in a different part. Someone living and working in Manhattan, New York or San Francisco, California needs more money than someone living in Mobile, Alabama or Augusta, Georgia. If you just raise it to one number across the board people living in expensive areas still won't be able to get by and employers in less expensive areas won't be able to pay their workers.

Instead calculate a living wage for each county. Announce in January of each year that it is the new minimum wage for that area and employers need to start paying them that come April. It will stay that wage from April to April each year. Sometimes it will go up, sometimes it will go down. But it will always be a living wage for that area so we aren't back to “raise the minimum wage” every decade or so while people are on food stamps and politicians are being paid off by corporations. It's not perfect. Even within one county there will be suburbs that have different COL than cities and even two cities in one county might be different. But it will be far closer than where we are now.

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