“In the year 2023, in the richest country in the history of the world, nobody should be forced to work for starvation wages… If you work 40, 50 hours a week, you should not be living in poverty. It is time to raise the minimum wage to a living wage.” Bernie Sanders, May 4, 2023
This is Sanders’ argument for raising the minimum wage from its current level of $7.25 an hour to $17.00. But the whole premise is wrong. Virtually no one today is earning the minimum wage. Even if they did, they wouldn’t be poor. And that’s been true for some time.