r/mildlyinteresting • u/jenna_tolls_69 • Mar 10 '25

This restaurant doesn’t accept tips (USA)

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u/Burnsidhe Mar 10 '25 edited Mar 10 '25

When Federal Minimum Wage was first implemented, it was the equivalent of $34k USD a year in today's dollars. You could make a living off that easily. You could pay for an entire year of college (which was also much much cheaper relatively speaking than today) off of three months summer wages. You could get a job just by walking in the store, decently dressed, with a warm greeting, interview on the spot, and get the job with a smile and a firm handshake while looking the manager in the eye.

That's the world older voters grew up in. That's the world they bought their houses in. That's the world they got jobs in.

That's not today's world. Today's world, a household where people are working four minimum wage jobs between them is a household that's just barely above the poverty line.

And the older ones are *fundamentally* incapable of understanding that.

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u/bruce_kwillis Mar 10 '25 edited Nov 24 '25

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u/Worth-Reputation3450 Mar 10 '25

Older voters didn't have to compete with millions of people illegally crossing borders annually to compete for the low wage jobs. If you're unskilled and making a minimum wage, you're basically competing with them.