But notice how hard the dependent will fight over the estate. A tribute to the healthier and deceased.

Right, why don't the poors just invest their money instead of buying groceries? They could eat take-out, so what's the problem?

When told that her French subjects had no bread, Marie-Antoinette had the solution. It still applies. “Let them eat cake.”

There may be some cake in there. That 1998 grocery cart looked liked it was full of junk food, hence my previous comment.

Good. There must be chocolate. Essential for improved (short term) brain activity. Which proves man cannot live on cake alone.

The infographic suggests that the cost of inflation has a terrible bearing on a minimum wage earner's ability to buy things over time. It is wrong.

If you bought $20 of goods in 1998, they would cost $28.92 in 2015

During that same time, minimum wage was increased from $5.15 to $7.25*

$5.15 in 1998 has the same buying power as $7.45 in 2015. So, during that period the wage is slightly underperforming inflation.

An accurate infographic would show the wage earner buying the same cart, but with 2-3 fewer items.





*minimum wage now differs by locality, as states and cities have the ability to set their own minimum wage, always setting it higher and typically much higher.

But more interestingly, in 1998 4.4 million workers were at minimum wage; in 2015, it's 2.6 million. In 1998, 6.2% of all hourly-paid workers got minimum wage. In 2015, only 3.3% do. And by 2017, that number is 2.3%. It looks like the market is giving us a higher labor rate than the federal minimum. FWIW Wendy's pays like $12 out here.

I don't know if there's anything to substantiate whether things track this way, but I guess I'd always assumed that minimum wage is a baseline wage that employers incentivize hiring based on how high "above" minimum they are. I guess I'm remembering that from early jobs I had a long time ago, where twice as much as minimum wage seemed like an awesome gig-- DOUBLE the regular amount!

Of course that makes sense, since the minimum wage wasn't raised during that whole time. If the minimum wage were tied to inflation (which I think it should be, to save us rehashing this stupid political debate every couple of decades), $7.25 in 1998 would be $10.83 per hour now. What percentage of hourly workers would be at minimum wage by that calculation?

My stepdaughter was most recently making $8.40 as a restaurant hostess. The real question is: is the $12-per-hour Wendy's worker in your area able to afford housing in your area? My stepdaughter couldn't even afford to split the ghetto-est of ghetto apartments with roommates, in this area.

It was $5.15 in 1998

Not noticing any tent cities so I'ma say yes. Section 8 around here is like $900/month.

Ah, a perfect example of localities doing their own thing, like you said above. For me, I know it went from $5.15 to $5.25 in Austin around the summer/fall of 1996 because I was working at Domino's Pizza then and was excited to personally benefit from the change. By 1998, I was getting more elsewhere and don't remember it as clearly.

Federal minimum history via Dep't of Labor: https://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/chart.htm

Current state levels via Nat'l Council of State Legislators: http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-a...art.aspx#Table

GOD DAMN!!

$900 a month?!

I said GOD DAMN!!!:bolt:

I'm not sure I could live on twelve dollars an hour.

Rent, food, car, car insurance, car gas, car licensing, car maintenance, electricity, water, gas, clothes, ohshitthetransmissionconkedout$1000+, and the tires are bald.

And I haven't even fed my two children yet. Or put clothes on them. Or paid the sitter. Or school costs. Dammitthelittleurchinbrokehisdamnleg$5000.

Nope. I, myself, could not live on $12/hour.

It costs more than that just to drive GC1 at interstate speeds.

And you didn't even mention the big ones: Fed and state income Tax, SS, health insurance.