[hardoncollider]

"If a worker today is employed full time for a full 52-week year at a minimum wage job today, she or he is making $15,080. [...] The average age for these [76 million] workers is 36 years old and they have been in the labor force for an average of 17 years. Only 6 percent of the workers who would benefit from this minimum wage increase are teenagers; i.e., 94 percent are adults."

318M people in the US, 188M above the age of 30. Around 38% of adults (30+) are working for minimum wage and any prospect of having a family would put them below the federal poverty line.

Do we really believe in an environment where 38% of adults shouldn't be afforded the ability to spend time with their child, something every other major-industrialized nation guarantees as a human right?

McDonalds should bear the burden -- I think the $5B in profits last year should allow for a little human decency.

http://www.budget.senate.gov/democratic/public/index.cfm/201...

[ddingus]

You should not have been voted down for this.

How we value people has a very serious impact on our economics. We wonder about tepid demand? This is one cause of that tepid demand. When people are valued low enough for them to require help to exist and do basic things, they really can't participate in the same economy that desires strong growth year over year.