the only way this is praise-worthy is if alongside it, housing prices are frozen and/or forcibly rolled back to ensure that rent is less than 30% of a minimum wage worker's income (+30% = 'severely rent burdened' per HUD). that's not going to happen. https://twitter.com/cgduckworth/status/1354103967702257666

the fight for 15 is not literally about the number 15 but about securing a living wage. it was radical in 2012 but that was nearly ten years ago. by all measures, a $15 minimum wage today is going to fall short within a year or two, across the country.

inflation is not a forever thing. it peaks. there will either come a point where everything is so expensive that the minimum wage needs to be $30/hr and people are still in poverty *or* the government regulates the various forces of economic oppression into cutting that shit out.

san francisco introduced an incremental wage increase over the course of five years, as did nyc. speaking as a low wage worker in both those cities, it was not sufficient -- it felt like every time the new increase came it was a year too late.

that increasing the minimum wage, whether state or federally, continues to be reactive (but advertised as proactive) is why raising the minimum wage continues to fail. it needs to happen alongside preventing everything else from getting more expensive, and it never does.

the minimum wage was established with the intent of 1 full time worker supporting themselves, their spouse, and a child. today it can't support a single person, anywhere in the US, let alone their family.

the last time the minimum wage was a living wage was in 1968, when the minimum wage had its strongest buying power. this is solely because the cost of living wasn't on the steep incline it's been on for as long as i've been alive.

solely raising wages helps, but only briefly. within a few months, that small boost eats itself up. being able to get your head above water for a sec is incredibly valuable and workers deserve to breathe, but it frustrates me knowing we'll all be under water again.

lawmakers introducing reactive minimum wage increases rolled out a decade too late with nothing to clamp down on runaway COL is nothing but empty posturing to appeal to voters who do not earn minimum wage, have no understanding of the fight at hand, and who just wanna lick boots.

make housing free and watch the minimum wage be livable at $7.25/hr across the country.