Markle
Diamond Member
![]()
Byrd Rule, politics threaten $15 per hour minimum wage
Democrats face a series of steep political and procedural challenges as they plot a path to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour using a budgetary process known as reconciliation that would sides…thehill.com
I don't doubt or disagree with NYC or other urban areas, esp progressive ones, logically wanting the raise. Or the need of workers. But in rural states, min wage jobs sometimes just supplement rural life of raising and growing one's own food. It will kill jobs, because the people who buy retail goods are the same ones working the jobs. Employers will consolidate gas stations, small grocery's and maybe even Wal-Marts. It just seems typical leftwing elitism to think places like Ala and Miss and WV can't figure out their own state economies.
Entry level jobs will disappear. Employers will not train employees @ $15/Hr.; Restaurant workers better get used to no tips--I am not going to pay an inflated price for a meal (to cover higher wages) and give the server a tip too. Most servers I have known make more in tips than their wage. We've already been set up for a gig economy--especially with covid. Got skills? If not, you'll be on the dole before too long.
You are 100% correct with all your points.
In the 10th grade, I turned 16 and got my first "real job" bagging groceries at a major chain. My pay was $0.85 per hour plus tips. That was in 1960 and that 85 cents was 15 cents below the minimum wage. For that 85 cents to $1.00 I could buy about 3 gallons of regular gas. Today one can still buy about three gallons of gas for that minimum wage of $7.25.
Working for tips that early on taught me valuable lessons, the harder I worked and the better service I gave, the more money I made. We all made many times our minimum wage which really amounted to some frosting on the cake at the end of the week. I could fill my F-100 pickup with gas and I was good for the week!

