Minimum wage was never designed to be a “livable” wage. It was the entry wage for unskilled labor.
That being said, the true minimum wage is always zero.
It will come with all kinds of legal baggage, like that you're only eligible for it until you reach some age.
In order to get it, your employer will be obliged to play for you an "orientation video," in which you'll be told how unfair the capitalist system is, and how many legal avenues you have to sue your boss. Your employer will be required to present this video to you every year.
At the end of the video, you'll be given the chance to register as a Democrat, and allowed to select a menu option that will ensure that your computer-generated straight-ticket Democrat ballot is generated for every future election in perpetuity.
Oh, and your employer will have to pay you while you listen to the video.
“That being said, the true minimum wage is always zero.”
It can also be said that the true minimum wage is the wage where you can’t find any workers to work at the pay you are offering.
Don’t agree? Try finding workers at $5 dollars an hour, you won’t have any takers.
The market ultimately sets the real minimum wage.
This is something that a lot of “conservatives” lose sight of.
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).
Exactly right. Even the socialist Swedes understand this