On July 25th, 2009, the minimum wage was raised to $7.25 an hour.
I was at a tour guide job. I’d started at state minimum wage in 2007 of $6.50.
One thing I’d do sometimes for meals at that job was walk down to the local Subway and get a Five Dollar Footlong. This would last me the rest of the day; realistically it was more than I needed.
Today in 2026, I forgot my lunch on my way to work. I was unable to leave so I got the healthiest food I could from the cashless vending.
For $6.08, I got this.
Not even 500 calories, and almost a full post tax hour of minimum wage. (Granted vending prices are higher so for fairness, a local grocery would charge about $3 for the same, which still is far less calories per dollar than a full sub)
We always hear about how if the minimum wage goes up, prices will go up. So? They’re going up anyways! The same $5 sub costs $12 these days! And then they try to get me to tip, because they aren’t paying employees enough!
The “fight for $15” started in 2012, and is ongoing and still “too much”. Why? If prices have doubled. The minimum wage in 1968 was $1.60 but had almost $15 of purchasing power today. And I’ll tell you that the average employee produces way more value per hour than in 1968.
And then they complain that people aren’t having kids. At 150 calories a dollar, feeding one person each day at 2000 calories takes two hours of labor per day. That’s 14 hours a week. Consider that you don’t get forty hours so no benefits so you have rent, any healthcare, any bills or debts, utilities, phone, internet, car and fuel and insurance. Kids are unaffordable there.
People should save money for emergencies”, yeah dad, with what leftover?
-Arrow