Costs for goods and services have been artificially raised for decades. Very little has been passed on to employees since wages have been flat since 1975.
Yes they have- wages always are at the bottom of the pile. That's life. Artificially increasing an artificial wage is still artificial.
Artificial ain't real. Life is. Artificial begets artificial. Demanding more artificial exacerbates a situation which could be controlled by free markets which are influenced by consumers (wage earners) not determined by someone with no skin in the market. Wages will still be at the bottom of the pile, but, supply and demand will determine wages and profits not a centrally controlled arbiter of artificial.
Anything and I do mean anything given can be taken. If it's earned there will be more of a fight to keep it. If gov't gives it you can bet the cost will be much higher sooner rather than later. Besides that, I don't recall seeing that power enumerated in the constitution- a power, btw, granted, not earned and can be rescinded at any time.
In every "free market" nation where the minimum wage has been eliminated, wages have dropped and prices have risen. Wages, as percentage of costs, have been declining since 1980 in the USA, when Ronald Reagan took on the Air Traffic Controllers Union, and broke it. This is a uniquely American problem. In other jurisdictions, labour movements and labour unions have remained strong, and haven't been weakened by legislation or union busting tactics.
In all other first world countries, the government has established and maintained a steadily increasing minimum wage, and unions are encouraged by government, and by legislation. Companies know they have to compete with union shops in terms of wages and benefits, or their workers will unionize as well. In Germany, workers appoint a percentage of the board members to ensure that the workers have a say in all major decisions, including raises for both workers and management.
American corporations have no such similar requirements, and Republican governments have routinely failed to pass any sort of worker protections for maternity leaves - paid or unpaid, job security for pregnant women, mandated vacations, or any sort of law which prevents employers in having any say in what employee health insurance does and does not cover, based on the religious beliefs of my employers. If health insurance is part of employee compensation packages, it's the employees' wages which are purchasing the health insurance, and as such the employees should have the final say, not the employers.
In fact, Republican held states have passed "at will" employment and all sorts of other "employer friendly" legislation, which further reduces an employee's bargaining power. Basically, employers peg low skill wages to the local minimum wage, so unless it goes up, neither does their hourly rate.
Post 9/11, when off-shoring really got going, a lot of the impact was covered up economically, by the increased active enlistment in the military. But when hostilities ended, the returning waves of unemployed service men and women, swelled the ranks of the unemployed in the economic meltdown.
The US economy has always relied upon a pool of low wage, low skill workers. Pre and Post Independence, it was the black slaves who provided that low cost, high value work. Post Emmancipation, it was the "guest workers" from Mexico and China, who could be used and sent home when the dirty work was done. Today, it's the illegal immigrants. It's not surprising that it's always been the Republicans who refuse to prosecute the employers. If these people didn't have employers eager to hire them, they wouldn't come. And yet Donald Trump has yet to file charges against a single employer since he took office, even as he has jailed 40,000 law abiding immigrants who were contributing members of society when he had them picked up.
