Democrats want the federal statutoryminimum wageincreased because it has stood at $7.25 per hour since July 24, 2009, the longest stretch without a congressional increase since the federal minimum was established in 1938.
People forget that the labor market is like any other market, governed by supply and demand. This means that if the wage an employer is willing to pay is too low, he will have fewer applicants and be unable to fill all open positions.
In most of the United States, there would be a shortage of workers at $7.25 an hour, so local employers have found that they must offer higher wages to fill all of their positions. Only1 percentof hourly-paid workers in 2024 earned at or below the federal minimum wage, a figure that had fallen from 13.4 percent in 1979.
As with the prices of shoes, pomegranates, and swizzle sticks, the market has already found the correct minimum wage naturally, without government intervention, with workers earning considerably more. Bureau of Labor Statistics May2024 national data, across all 154 million occupied positions, found that themedian hourly wageis $23.80 and the mean is $32.66.
The claim from Democrats is that people are starving and cannot live on minimum wage. Conservatives often counter that the U.S. minimum wage was never meant to be a living wage but rather a source of pocket money for high school and college students. Initially, this was not true; the wage was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938 as a livable wage.
However, in the intervening decades, more Americans went to university, and higher-paying service-industry jobs emerged, meaning lawyers, programmers, marketing consultants, and accountants, not food service, which is what most people think of.
At the same time, low-level food and retail jobs were increasingly filled by young people, while heads of families and established adults moved into higher-paying work. Hence, the $23.80 median and $32.66 mean across all jobs.
As for claims of starvation, the U.S. has an obesity problem, with very little, if any, hunger recorded. The 2026 federal poverty level is$15,960for a single individual and $33,000 for a family of four, published by HHS in January 2026. So, anyone trying to live on minimum wage would qualifyfor public assistance.
According to payroll companyGusto’s analysisof tens of thousands of small-business employers, workers earning $7.25 per hour have a 70 percent chance of leaving within one year. That statistic shows that these are not career positions. Most people at the bottom stay there only briefly before moving on to better jobs.
Official statistics say that only 1.0 percent of workers earn the federal minimum wage or less. However, the “or less” part needs clarification. Democrats take this to mean people who are being exploited. However, many in the “or less” category earn substantially more than minimum-wage workers.
Source: The Gateway Pundit
