“The two longest periods without a minimum wage increase have both occurred since 1981. We’re on that road again with a $7.25 minimum wage since 2009. The minimum wage has lost nearly a third of its value since its 1968 high point of $10.75 in today’s dollars.”
“As the wage floor has sunk below poverty levels, millions of workers find themselves with paychecks above the minimum, but still earning poverty wages.”
“…Between 1968 and 2012, as the minimum wage eroded, the top 1 percent of households doubled their share of our nation’s income from 11 percent to 22 percent.”
“The top 1 percent took 95 percent of all the income growth from 2009 to 2012.
Today’s big business CEOs make more in a year than most small business owners make in their lifetimes.
“The disparity has doubled at McDonald’s Corp. in the last 10 years,” Bloomberg reported. “At the same time, the company helped pay for lobbying against minimum wage increases.”
“…Nearly half of America’s 50 million public school children have family incomes so low they are eligible for free or reduced lunch. The share of low-income students jumped from 38 percent of all students in 2001 to 48 percent in 2011, according to a new report by the Southern Education Foundation.”
“The Walton heirs on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans have a combined net worth of $136 billion. Wal-Mart workers top the state lists of employees depending on the public safety net.”
-All quotes by Holly Sklar, Director of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. To see her full article, click below.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/10/22/206081/minimum-wage-back-to-1950-level.html