General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The imminent backlash of the Democratic Left. [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)CEOs has increased so drastically while the minimum wage has remained the same and lost purchasing value.
Corporations can afford to pay employees more and should pay the top echelons of management a lot less.
That "raising the minimum wage during an economic downturn might increase unemployment" is a popular meme, but it makes not sense.
The money that goes to the salaries of the CEOs gets invested overseas and in luxuries made outside the US or in investment real estate. It does not go into infrastructure or back into our economy. When you raise the minimum wage, the lowest paid workers have more money to spend and they spend it in OUR ECONOMY. That is what will improve our economy and cause unemployment to decline.
CEOs "invest" a lot of their money in foreign enterprises. That does not help employment or lift the living standards in the US.
Infrastructure improvements have to be paid for -- out of taxes. If you increase national investment in infrastructure (a good idea at this time because our infrastructure is horrible), you have to raise taxes. That's the only way the Republicans will agree with it.
But the first priority is to get wages raised, especially the minimum wage. Americans working for minimum wage right now are in poverty. Anyone who has ever lived in poverty knows that needs to change. No American who works should have to live in poverty, unable to pay for health insurance, healthy food, transportation, even rent, much less a family. It's shameful. Our entire nation should be ashamed of the fact that our minimum wage is so low.