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To: kosciusko51
Minimum wage was never designed to be a “livable” wage.

When Kennedy was shot, the minimum wage was $1.25 an hour. Gold was $35.25 / ounce. Today, gold is $2,640.00. On that basis, if the minimum wage was in real value equivalent to what it was when Kennedy was shot, it would be (rounded down) $93.61 / hour. (That's around $190,000 a year. That sounds like a livable wage to me).

18 posted on 01/04/2025 7:57:52 AM PST by PAR35
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To: PAR35

The median income was $6200 in 1963. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1964/demo/p60-043.html

For a 2000-hour year, that comes out to $3.10/hr

Minimum wage was therefore roughly 40% of median income. I guess that may be a livable income.

In 2023, it was $80,610. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2024/demo/p60-282.html

To keep up with the median, minimum wage would be $16.25, which is near the high end of minimum wages by state, and significantly higher than the federal minimum of $7.25.

The use of gold as a standard is highly misleading, since we are not on the gold standard anymore. Otherwise, the median income should be around $475,000.


24 posted on 01/04/2025 8:29:12 AM PST by kosciusko51
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