Early Progressives Understood What Minimum Wages Do

The Daily Economy ^ | June 6, 2026 | Logan Tantibanchachai

[chickenlips]

Pennsylvania and Virginia recently passed legislation to increase their minimum wage to $15 per hour, closing the gap with Oregon ($15.55 as of July 1) and California ($17.90 in some places). In all, 34 states mandate a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. The potential economic detriments of a minimum wage — namely, job losses — are well known. But the trend toward higher and higher minimum wages ought to prompt us to reconsider their purpose.

The standard assumption about progressivism is that it’s intrinsically good — after all, who would oppose progress? Progressivism in the twentieth-century, though, had a much more squirrely history. Many progressives were proponents of eugenics, opponents of classical liberalism, and advocates of scientific racism. And the origins of the federal minimum wage emerged from these attitudes.

Compared to today’s progressives, early twentieth-century progressive economists were at least honest and understood the impact of a minimum wage — they knew that it would cause job losses. But they believed the job losses caused by the minimum wage were a social benefit, not a detriment.

As the historian Thomas Leonard summarized it:

Sidney and Beatrice Webb put it plainly: ‘With regard to certain sections of the population [the ‘unemployable’], this unemployment is not a mark of social disease, but actually of social health.’

‘[O]f all ways of dealing with these unfortunate parasites,’ Sidney Webb opined in the Journal of Political Economy, ‘the most ruinous to the community is to allow them to unrestrainedly compete as wage earners.’ … A minimum wage was seen to operate eugenically through two channels: by deterring prospective immigrants and also by removing from employment the ‘unemployable,’ who, thus identified, could be, for example, segregated in rural communities or sterilized.

[chickenlips]

The author gives modern progressives some credit for good intentions, but this is incorrect. Progressives still like minimum wages to keep people out of the job market, they're just better at making it sound compassionate now. After all they still like creating dependency as the Democrats have for almost 200 years.

[Mogger]

I read once that inflation cuts your money in half every 10 years.

Based on that, starting about 50 years ago, gas should be $32 a gallon.

Rent should be $6400 for an average apartment.

An average pickup truck should be $80,000.

Skilled blue collar income should be $224,000 a year.

The pickup turned out about right.

The minimum wage should also be much higher than it is, but not by the force of government action.

[Rowdyone]

Every time the government does something for someone they not only create dependency but they create rising expectations. It’s like you give your kid an iPhone when he’s 12 so he can use it for “emergencies” and by sixteen he expects a car, insurance for the car, gas money, repairs/maintenance and spending money.

[Kudsman]

thus identified, could be, for example, segregated in rural communities or sterilized.

Please remember to spay and neuter your liberals. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

[yesthatjallen]

AI:

"In 1975, the federal minimum wage in the United States was $2.10 per hour

Based on inflation calculations using the Consumer Price Index (CPI), that $2.10 would have the same purchasing power in 2026 as approximately $13.50 to $14.00 per hour

Here is a breakdown of the figures:

1975 Minimum Wage: $2.10/hour

Inflation Factor: Prices have risen by roughly 540% to 570% since 1975. 2026 Equivalent Value: Using the CPI data for 1975 (53.8) and the projected 2026 CPI (approx. 330.2), the adjusted value is roughly $13.50"

[oldtech]

Minimum wage of $7.25/hr. sounds like it was meant to acomplish something by saying that someone starting out with no experience at anything must me made to understand that it is not meant as a living wage; just a small start in life. When I started out, minimum wage was about $1.00-$1.25/hr. If you want/need more (and most would) then you need to do something about it, like learn a trade, maybe join the military to get a start. Starting people out at $15-$20/hr. means that an established business has to take the hit & that’s not right as most cannot afford it.

[Flavious_Maximus]

So someone employed at a small ice cream shop will earn $15 an hour to serve scoops of ice cream to customers? How much will the ice cream cost? How much will people be willing to pay for it? The part time jobs will be cut to 2 hours a day.

[ridesthemiles]

YOU ARE LOW ON A USEFUL PICKUP TRUCK
CLOSER TO $100,000

[ridesthemiles]

BUY ICE CREAM & EAT IT AT HOME...WALMART HAS LOTS OF CHOICES..