1. I see the problem — he’s been fighting at that store for 25 years. Why they keep such a belligerent employee around is a mystery.

2. It only took me 10 years to grow my skills from being worth approximately $0 an hour to being worth well over $35 an hour. I wonder what that guys problem is? Yeah I know the economy sucks and it’s hard to find jobs, but are you seriously telling me that you have worked continuously for 25 years and have not acquired enough skills to make you more valuable than an entry level scrub? I know people in the food industry who have gone from dish cleaner to managing multiple locations in less than that amount of time. If I felt that my advancement was being held back I would have started looking for better jobs before the end of year one, not waited til year 25 then demand a higher minimum wage. That’s just plain lazy.

3. The federal minimum wage in the United States is $7.25; 29 states and the District of Columbia have higher minimum wages, but let’s just stick to the federal one since that is the universal baseline.

   $7.25 an hour, at forty hours per week (we will assume that even Mr. Johnson doesn’t consider it unreason that people who work fewer hours will earn less dollars) at fifty weeks per year (so ten days unpaid vacation or whatever) is going to earn you (pre-tax) $14,500 annually.

   Now, keep that number handy. We’ll be back to it in a tick.

   The federal poverty guidelines are a federal government estimate of the point below which a household of a given size has pre-tax income insufficient to meet minimal food and other basic needs. Note that the original meme specifies that Mr. Johnson is “living in poverty.” I will admit that the poverty thresholds vary based on factors like the number of adults in the household, the number of dependent children, living in Alaska or Hawaii, and other such circumstances. I could try to track them down for Chicago, but that’s effort I don’t feel is strictly necessary. Let’s just look at the two most common scenarios: living in the contiguous 48 states as a single adult with no dependents or living in those same states as two adults with two dependents.

   Taking a look at the United States Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) figures for Federal Poverty Level in 2015 (most recent year I have numbers for) we can see that the poverty level for a single adult is $11,770; the poverty level for two adults with two dependents is $24,250.

   This means a single adult working full time at the federal minimum wage is NOT poor: $14,500-$11,700= +$2,800

   This means two adults working full time (and supporting two kids) at the federal minimum wage are NOT poor: $29,000-$24,250= +$4,750

   Is it a luxurious life? Far from it.
   Is it a hardscrabble life? Yeah, it can be.
   Does it disprove the meme’s “still living in poverty” claim? Hell yes it does.

   If someone wants to argue that full-time work for minimum wage should earn more than this, then they should make that argument using a less histrionic statement than “living in poverty!” Because that sort of alarmist language will make people skeptical. Skeptical people will look at the facts, do the math, and conclude that Mr. Johnson does NOT in fact live in poverty. That just makes the Fight for Fifteen’s policy position seem either ill-informed or intentionally dishonest

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   1. By the numbers I agree you aren’t wrong, but in practicality $2800 above poverty ain’t shit especially when it comes to trying to save, save for retirement, debt, and other incidental costs like car repairs.

      I’ve successfully lived on $10k a year and comfortably. As my grandfather likes to use a a benchmark, I could afford steak. But I was single, had no dependents, had a roommate, and had no debt. I don’t see how having any of those other things makes $15k a year livable.

      But don’t get me wrong, I think $15 an hour minimum wage is horse shit and cheapens everyone else’s value. My point is these standards and numbers are not grounded in reality.

4. No wonder the dude isn’t making more than minimum pay scale after 25 years: he’s pig ignorant about economy and thinks you get raises by demanding them instead of by earning them.

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5. You would think that after 25 years of working a job that you would have moved up in the corporate food chain so to speak.

   40 years ago I worked a job in fast food, during and after high school. Then I joined the Navy and learned a skill which has served and supported me all my life. Go Navy!

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6. There is another aspect that bears examination here, and that is the very concept that minimum wage laws help people. They don’t. What happens is that prices go up. It is one of the drivers of inflation. Minimum wage is about 5 times what it was in 1969, and a Big Mac costs about 5 times as much today as it cost in 1969, when it was introduced.
   When Big Macs cost 49 cents, minimum wage was $1.60 per hour.

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7. He’s just another member of the class that believes that everything should be GIVEN to them, not earned. In their minds it’s THEIR job, not a job that their employer needs doing to make a profit. Entitlement mentality that the regressives have poisoned the minds of Americans with, bass-ackwards to the real world.

8. Back in the stone age, when min wage was $4/hr, I got a starter job at $4.25 and got a raise to $4.50 after two months for my hard work. Just after that, they raised the min wage to $4.50 so all the new people starting were making the same as me. No compensatory raise was given.

   Years later, working R&D for $12 something /hr, they raised the Min wage again. Prices across town increased and the min wage people at my company lost some paid days off. Again no compensatory raise.

   Each time the value of my labor, skills, and experience were decreased. IOW I was doing the same work for less compensation.

   Min wage helps no one and hurts everyone.

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