Sen. John Thune, Opposing $15 Min Wage, Says He Earned $6 As a Kid--That's $24 With Inflation

[demmiblue]

In a tweet voicing his opposition to raising the national minimum wage to $15 an hour, Republican South Dakota Senator John Thune said he made $6 an hour working at a restaurant as a "kid." Adjusted for modern inflation, that would be $24 an hour today.

Congressional Republicans have largely opposed the Democratic proposal to raise the minimum wage. They argue a wage hike will harm small businesses who have already been economically harmed during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

"I started working by bussing tables at the Star Family Restaurant for $1/hour & slowly moved up to cook – the big leagues for a kid like me– to earn $6/hour," Thune wrote in a Wednesday evening tweet. "Businesses in small towns survive on narrow margins. Mandating a $15 minimum wage would put many of them out of business."

Link to tweet

https://www.newsweek.com/sen-john-thune-opposing-15-min-wage-says-he-earned-6-kidthats-24-inflation-1571915

[NewHendoLib]

1. republican politicians can't be this stupid... can they???

[zeusdogmom]

3. I think you answered your own question

Did anyone on his staff quickly send out a statement correction or rather “clarification”? Or are their thinking skills also limited?

[2naSalit]

5. You have to ask?

How old is this asswipe? Really, that's about as tone deaf as one can get.

[Guilded Lilly]

6. Yes, repeatedly and vociferously. Add dense, shallow, greedy, mean, hateful,arrogant... N/T

[Hassin Bin Sober]

9. No, but their constituents are...

And they know it.

[BeyondGeography]

2. Rookie mistake...Four years of Trump has obviously rotted their brains

[Eyeball_Kid]

4. Thune was born in 1961.

In 1980, the minimum wage was around 3.10 an hour. Thune wasn't making minimum wage when he was making 6 bucks an hour. He was making twice that amount. His argument is superfluous nonsense.

[BSdetect]

7. He crunchers numbers as well as facts. Genius. Crunching in the sense of crushing.

[Turbineguy]

8. Wow. I must really be against the $15 an hour wage.

I worked for $1.25 an hour.

[Thrill]

10. He actually tweeted this like it's something to be proud of

Proud to be dumb as fuck.

But their voters love it

[patphil]

11. So, about 40 years ago he earned $6. an hour. Many states have s $7.25 an hour min. wage now.

I can understand how he must have felt making that money 40 years ago, but that's was then. And yet a lot of states have a minimum wage that's only $1.25 more than he made way back then.
That $7.25 federal minimum wage was set in 2009...11 years ago. Jeez, even McDonald's pays over $10. an hour now. Even baby sitters are making well over $10. per hour...the national average is around $16.
https://www.today.com/parents/what-are-babysitter-rates-these-days-here-s-range-t148512

It's time to bring the minimum wage up into the reality of today's cost of living.

[Bluesky505]

12. Raising minimum wage will do nothing

Raise the minimum wage and the cost of everything just goes up. In the end you may be earning more but life costs more so it's a wash. Then you have the folks who have been at a job for years worked their way up to $15 and now they're making the same as someone who just started. Think they'll be down with that? There has to be another answer, I have no clue what it is but raising minimum wage does nothing.

[Yavin4]

13. So, the answer is to keep people living in poverty?

Which means that they will be in perpetual state of anger. Which creates fertile soil for racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.

[andym]

14. Untrue: Increase in costs is due to inflation to which minimum wage is actually a minor contributor

While there are many opinion pieces and warnings from some economists about the minimum wage contributing to inflation, the actual data suggests that increasing minimum wage has a minor effector on inflation, so it will not raise prices much:

"According to a recent piece of economic research that examined the effect of prices on minimum wage increases in various states in the U.S. from 1978 through 2015, they found that a 10% increase in minimum wage only accounts for around a 0.36% increase in prices.Moreover, increases in prices following minimum wage hikes generally have occurred in the month the minimum wage hike is implemented, and not in the months before or the months after."-- Investopedia

Here is the primary source for that:
https://research.upjohn.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1278&context=up_workingpapers
and their summary:
https://www.upjohn.org/research-highlights/does-increasing-minimum-wage-lead-higher-prices

Based on the data, raising the minimum wage actually helps people cope with inflation after it occurs rather than contributing much.That said it does contribute something, just not a lot.


Investopedia's conclusion:
"The Bottom Line
So, is raising the minimum wage a good idea for the economy? Suffice it to say, raising the minimum wage to an excessively high rate would exert inflationary pressure on the economy, but increasing it to keep pace with inflation would only have a minimal effect."

Bottom line is that raising the minimum wage to $15 should not spike inflation no matter what some say, because it trails historical inflation rates.

Here is the investopedia article-- hardly a liberal souce btw:
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/052815/does-raising-minimum-wage-increase-inflation.asp

[SoonerPride]

15. This is patently false

If you want to join DU to peddle right wing talking points your visit will be short lived.

[Turin_C3PO]

16. Not true.

Study after study has proven your theory wrong.