It's Time to Raise the Minimum Wage

Worker productivity is up! I borrowed a couple of graphs from Kevin Drum's blog to show it and to use that as strong evidence the federal minimum wage should be increased.

My source:  https://jabberwocking.com/chart-of-the-day-productivity-was-up-in-final-quarter-of-2022/

Can corporations afford to pay better wages? It would appear so.

My source:  https://jabberwocking.com/war-profiteering-how-about-pandemic-profiteering/

How much should wages go up for minimum wage earners? It seems $13.00 / hour is pretty common (from chatter on reddit.com) and the current minimum wage is at $7.25, so maybe $10.00 would be good.

Since 2010 it appears wages have gone up about 12% while the minimum wage (last set in 2006) is still $7.25 / hour. Raising that wage rate 12% would be $8.12, but it hasn't been raised since about 2006 and productivity has gone up rather a lot since then.

What's the longer-term trend?

Labor productivity has gone up dramatically from 1973 - about 2008 and slowed a bit. Hourly compensation began rising at a slower rate around 1998. This indicates that if the common wage is around $13.00 / hour and hourly compensation hasn't kept up with labor productivity increases then the hourly rate should perhaps be more like $15.00 / hour. But, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 and a large increase from $7.25 to $11.00 (for example) is nearly a 50% increase and that may be too sudden and too much. Many would even argue that from $7.25 up to $10.00 is too much, but the minimum wage has increased several times at a 50% increase and $7.25 x 1.50 is $10.86. (nearly $11 / hour). So, any increase would be appropriate from up to $11.00 / hour. I suggest $10.00.