$22 minimum wage sounds pretty amazing to many people in the workforce. On March 18, Huffington Post reported that Sen. Elizabeth Warren thinks that minimum wage should be around that amount if things has progressed properly in the workforce. Warren recently questioned what happened to the other $14.75 that should be, in her opinion, going to working citizens.
"If we started in 1960 and we said that as productivity goes up, that is as workers are producing more, then the minimum wage is going to go up the same. And if that were the case then the minimum wage today would be about $22 an hour. So my question is Mr. Dube, with a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, what happened to the other $14.75? It sure didn't go to the worker," Warren said, speaking to Dr. Arindrajit Dube, a University of Massachusetts Amherst professor (via Huffington Post).
$22 minimum wage sounds like a dream to many people who work 40-hours a week (or more) and barely take home enough money to put food on the table. It isn't that minimum wage should be that high but that it should be higher than $7.25. The growth rate has really "flat-lined" over the past few decades according to Huff Post.
Not at all surprising, Sen. Elizabeth Warren supports President Obama's plan to increase the minimum wage to over $10. She feels as though this is crucial to get people working and to get the economy going in a positive direction.
A $22 minimum wage might be out of the question, but workers would greatly benefit from a minimum wage of $10 an hour. $2.75/hour doesn't seem like much but if you get paid minimum wage for the work you do, you'd probably welcome the increase with open arms.
© Effie Orfanides 2013
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