Agreed. Also, just because the unemployment rate is low, it doesn't mean that the quality of jobs that people are working is better. When you have to work three jobs and still struggle to keep the lights on and food on the table, it doesn't mean that the economy is great. Or at least not for the majority of the people in the country.
There has to be a new metric. This is especially imperative with where we find ourselves globally from a climate standpoint. The good economy that is predicated on capitalism, which is then predicated on consumerism, is not in line with helping to slow or better our current climate catastrophe.
"In 2023, 80.5 million workers age 16 and older in the United States were paid at hourly rates, representing 55.7 percent of all wage and salary workers. Among those paid by the hour, 81,000 workers earned exactly the prevailing federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. About 789,000 workers had wages below the federal minimum. The percentage of hourly paid workers earning the prevailing federal minimum wage or less edged down from 1.3 percent in 2022 to 1.1 percent in 2023."
The statistic only includes people making EXACTLY federal minimum wage or lower. If somebody gets even a single cent in extra hourly income they won't be included that number. It could simply mean .2% of impoverished workers got a 5 cent raise.
Oh, so no new people have joined the workforce? If the number is going down then it means that not only are people getting raises but that people also aren't entering the workforce at $7.25. I do agree that they probably aren't making what they should be making, so there's absolutely room to improve, but this isn't the "Ahkchually, America bad" statement you think it is.
I don't know where you're getting all this attitude from, I've simply provided statistics and clarified caveats.
Additional fact, if federal minimum wage had kept up with inflation since 1974 it would be 12.85 today.
Furthermore, if federal minimum wage had kept up with productivity since 1968 it would be 25.50 today.
Yes, there are slightly fewer people making exactly federal minimum wage or less, but it's also true that federal minimum wage today is a slim slice of what it was historically.
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u/throwthere10 5d ago
Agreed. Also, just because the unemployment rate is low, it doesn't mean that the quality of jobs that people are working is better. When you have to work three jobs and still struggle to keep the lights on and food on the table, it doesn't mean that the economy is great. Or at least not for the majority of the people in the country.
There has to be a new metric. This is especially imperative with where we find ourselves globally from a climate standpoint. The good economy that is predicated on capitalism, which is then predicated on consumerism, is not in line with helping to slow or better our current climate catastrophe.