If only Democrats had the stones to do this.

  • The fight for $15 movement started 13 years ago. $15 in 2012 money is equal to over $20 in 2025 money. It’s taking the most progressive senator we’ve got to even suggest a pittance that is below what we’ve been asking for for over a decade.

    • @alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      623 months ago

      And it is $17 in 2030.

      Here from Europe, let me recommend one thing we do well: we link our equivalent of social security to the average wage growth, not to inflation.

      This ensures that all voters benefit from wage growth. And thus all voters demand the same thing from the politicians.

        • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost
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          83 months ago

          Sensible policies are Unamerican, judging by what has been passed by Congress in the last 20 years.

      • @ClassStruggle@lemmy.ml
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        83 months ago

        The problem with that happening in the US is there has been no wage growth, only retraction. Between inflation and wage inequality our purchasing power is nearly half what it was 25 years ago.

        • @alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          93 months ago

          That’s the point. Your problem is that a lot of voters aren’t affected by wage growth. So politicians don’t feel the pressure to enact wage growth.

          All those senior people will actually vote for the guy who keeps wage growth in check.

        • @alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          13 months ago

          I know, but these things tend to be all or nothing.

          Either the American workers don’t seize power and they continue to get exploited, or they seize power and then a lot will be possible.

    • @sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 months ago

      Median one bed apartment rent, across the entire US, is $1550 as of Feb 2025.

      Lets knock 20% of that off, to approximate a median studio apartment instead, give some leeway to poorer parts of the country.

      (there are not as good or reliable general stats counted for studio apartments, but a studio being 20% less than a one bed is… hopefully a reasonable, napkin math aporoximation)

      Ok, that’s $1240.

      Alright, now we use the ‘rent should be 30% of your income’ rule.

      Thats $4135 a month, rounded up very slightly to the nearest 5.

      Ok, 40 hours a week, roughly 4 weeks a month = 160 hours.

      4135 / 160 = $25.85, again rounded up to the closet 5 cents for simplicity, so thats your actual minimum ‘living wage’.

      If you wanna say a studio should be 30% off a one bedroom?

      Math works out to roughly $22.60

      If you wanna say an actual one bedroom should be the standard, works out to about $32.60

      Any way you look at this, $17 an hour is too low, that’s still… you can’t even afford a studio (as in, you cannot pass the rent to income threshold without a cosigner or double deposit or somethingnon your lease) you need roommates, you’re still living with your parents.

    • Grool The Demon
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      183 months ago

      It already realistically needs to be between 25-30 an hr to even be considered a living wage.

      • @warbond@lemmy.world
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        13 months ago

        Then we make two wages, one we call minimum, the other we call living. That way it’s easy to know if a place is offering a living wage or if it’s just unimportant work.

        • @Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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          33 months ago

          Then we make two wages, one we call minimum, the other we call living.

          That way we can tell the difference between the morlocks and the eloi.

        • goferking (he/him)
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          13 months ago

          The only problem with that is there’s so much work people consider unimportant that is absolutely vital, just not what people want to do.

          Like fast food workers during school hours

          • @warbond@lemmy.world
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            13 months ago

            I agree with you, the “unimportant” part was tongue in cheek. My point really is that if a person wants a job done for money, they need to either pay a living wage or admit that the work isn’t important enough to pay for. There shouldn’t be an in-between for people to take advantage of.

        • @CalipherJones@lemmy.world
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          13 months ago

          lol right now we do have two wages. The minimum wage… and the subminimum wage. Yes, that is a real thing! 2.13$ an hour if you make more than 30$ in tips a month.

  • @dick_fineman@discuss.online
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    273 months ago

    By 2030, $17 will be the equivalent of $5/hr. Can we just skip the bullshit and tie minimum wage to 2xSGA@40hr/wk? Right now that’d be about $18.70

  • @Etterra@discuss.online
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    253 months ago

    They need to stop using fixed values and switch to a calculation based on GDP, cost of living, inflation, and other such factors. If you do that you don’t need to keep fighting to increase it.

  • @EmpireInDecay@lemmy.ml
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    213 months ago

    They only mention livable wages when they are not in a position to do anything about it.

    We need $25 now, not $17 in 5 years. Bernie has become a fucking joke and a shadow of who he used to be

    • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost
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      93 months ago

      Amazing how every time they’re powerless they wanna raise the minimum wage (to what we asked in 2012), legalize weed, codify Roe v. Wade, and this time stop Trump.

      If they get a hold of Congress who much do you think they’ll go for it? Assuming we have elections again.

    • @Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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      63 months ago

      They only mention livable wages when they are not in a position to do anything about it.

      In fairness, this was just as unlikely to pass under democrats.

    • @jagged_circle@feddit.nl
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      53 months ago

      Or how about just no wages? Kick out the capitalists stealing the profits and divide that amongst the workers.

      Abolish the wage system.

    • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost
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      123 months ago

      “Yeah we could have helped the people who voted us in, but fuck that, I love Republican policies, they make my bank account look so much nicer when the lobbyists pay us both.”

      I assume that’s her personal mantra. Fucking backstabber.

    • @Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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      103 months ago

      What Bernie 17 by 2030? Is fucking for real? Needs 25 an hour NOW! Might well tell people to keep straving. I should kmow make 24 an hour wife makes 16 and we still live paycheck to paycheck. With no car payments just house. Shit so fucking expensive. And its only going get worse. Why not 17 an hour now and 25 by 2030?

      • @PunkRockSportsFan@fanaticus.social
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        103 months ago

        50/hr or gtfo

        If it sounds crazy it’s because you’re been conditioned to believe that some jobs aren’t worth a living wage.

        It’s crazy.

        That means capitalism believes that people who work those jobs don’t deserve to live.

        It’s a class war and they are killing us.

        • @Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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          93 months ago

          No my fucking problem is we started this fight in 2012 for $15 an hour. Now what 2025 and its 17 by 2030? Its fucking joke and sad that it won’t even pass. We need to be shutting this country down until our demands are met. This bill lile all the others won’t even pass the Senate.

  • @the_q@lemm.ee
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    173 months ago

    Sweet. $17/hr * 40 = $680 a week * 4 = $2720 a month * 52 = $32640 all before tax. Still not enough to live on.

    • @mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      83 months ago

      Yeah, the “$15 an hour” debate has been going on for so long that the number has realistically increased to ~$23 per hour. And if a $23/hr minimum wage makes you balk, maybe you should consider how little you’re being paid for the job you currently do.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮
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    113 months ago

    Knowing that my state has the highest minimum wage in the country, and it still isn’t enough to live off of in this state, I think that the minimum needs to be almost twice that. At least in California. Or the federal minimum needs to be based on what shit actually costs regionally, and not just a single number for all 50 states.

    • @iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works
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      83 months ago

      No single wage is going to be adequate to cover a country as large and as diverse as the United States. The federal minimum wage is not meant to be a solution for every state, but more like a way to set an absolute bare minimum. States, and even cities, can set minimum wages higher than the federal one.

      • @Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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        33 months ago

        If your state’s minimum wage isn’t 7.25/hr with 2.13/hr tipped, don’t act like others should settle for less when you don’t have to.

    • @Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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      43 months ago

      Or the federal minimum needs to be based on what shit actually costs regionally, and not just a single number for all 50 states.

      “Got mine, fuck you.”

  • @ptc075@lemmy.zip
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    83 months ago

    Jesus fucking Christ why didn’t you do this back when the Democrats were in power Bernie? Stop fucking virtue signaling. You could have proposed this 4 years ago and it would have had a good chance of actually passing. And that’s exactly why you waited until now, isn’t it?

    It saddens me that Bernie is the least broken politician we have, and he still sucks.

  • @PurpleSkull@lemm.ee
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    63 months ago

    Ohhhh good job Bernie! I’m sure Johnson will get RIGHT on it! The House you lost will surely vote for that. And the Senate you lost will surely confirm it. And president Musk will absolutely sign it!

  • @Bloomcole@lemm.ee
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    63 months ago

    He could just as well introduce one to raise it to $17000 and a car as bonus.
    He knows it has no chance so that’s why he does it.
    The sheepdog is virtue signaling again pretending to be progressive.

      • @Bloomcole@lemm.ee
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        33 months ago

        I have built nothing as a European.
        And their system is indeed rigged and especially the last one with both wings of the uniparty successfully trying to keep 3rd parties of the ballot.
        Bernie in his function as sheepdog is allowed and cultivated by that very system since it keeps voters from chosing actual change.
        IDK where they get their news from but they keep making the same mistakes.

        A nice quote from Karl Marx, The Civil War in France:

        *Nowhere do “politicians” form a more separate, powerful section of the nation than in North America. There, each of the two great parties which alternately succeed each other in power is itself in turn controlled by people who make a business of politics.

        It is well known that the Americans have been striving for 30 years to shake off this yoke, which has become intolerable, and that in spite of all they can do they continue to sink ever deeper in this swamp of corruption.

        we find here two great gangs of political speculators, who alternately take possession of the state power and exploit it by the most corrupt means and for the most corrupt ends – and the nation is powerless against these two great cartels of politicians, who are ostensibly its servants, but in reality exploit and plunder it.*

      • @Bloomcole@lemm.ee
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        33 months ago

        The libs are always against war…except the current one.
        Whatever election as an ‘independent’, in the end he invariably endorses the awful dem candidate, not 3rd parties.
        Including the ghouls Hitlery, Copmala and Genocide Joe.

          • @Bloomcole@lemm.ee
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            13 months ago

            I didn’t I’m European.
            And I am very pleased he’s fucking up his own country for once and making it weaker and expediating its inevitable demise.
            It’s a gift to the world.

                • @ManixT@lemmy.world
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                  33 months ago

                  Why do you post so much about US politics while being so ignorant about them?

                  Are you aware that Bernie Sanders is anti genocide and is one of the only US politicians bringing up legislation against providing Israel with weapons and denouncing the genocide there?

                  If there would be any US politician I would expect you to support it would be him, but you’re just talking uninformed shit. Why?