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In 2025, the federal minimum wage is officially a “poverty wage.” The annual earnings of a single adult working full-time, year-round at $7.25 an hour now fall below the poverty threshold of $15,650 (established by the Department of Health and Human Services guidelines). The limitations of how the federal government calculates poverty understate how far the minimum wage is from economic security for workers and their families.

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[-] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 47 points 6 days ago

Raising minimum wage and housing would be an easy political platform to stand on but, of course, politicians are beholden to the rich.

[-] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago

It would be an easy platform for democrats to stand on if they hadn't thrown away all of their credibility on the matter.

[-] CrowAirbrush@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago

Where does that threshold come from though? Like is it adjusted accordingly with inflation or is it just a made up number from 1993?

Because seeing the effects of the tariffs this number should've doubled in the past months.

[-] seeigel@feddit.org 7 points 6 days ago

How should it be possible to leave poverty behind with minimum wage? It's the minimum. Only people without work can have less.

It's unfortunate but those who make the least are inevitable the ones who are poor. Not calling it poor is misleading.

[-] Uranus_Hz@lemm.ee 15 points 6 days ago

“No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

THAT was the actual reason the minimum wage was established in the first place. And businesses have been fighting against it ever since - through a combination of lobbying (bribing) politicians and propaganda designed to convince people that those who earn the minimum wage “deserve” to suffer.

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[-] Olhonestjim@lemmy.world 15 points 6 days ago

The minimum wage was not established to decide who is poor and who is not, but rather to eliminate poverty as a concept.

[-] ToastedPlanet 13 points 6 days ago

Poor is not defined as those who have the least in the economic terms being discussed in this article. That's why there is a poverty line to define what is meant by poor. The poverty line used by the government needs to be updated however.

If people had more than enough to get by then we wouldn't considered them poor even if no one had less money than them. Having the least amount of money isn't the issue. The issue is can a person acquire the goods and services they need to live. If not that's a problem and we've been describing that problem as being poor.

[-] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 6 points 6 days ago

You can call me whatever the fuck you want if I can afford food housing healthcare retirement and a bit extra on top.

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this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2025
961 points (100.0% liked)

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