That wasn't the original claim, and anyway I'm skeptical. Certainly the US minimum wage is very high if we look at it naively (in most of the world $13.50/hr is a whole lot of money, especially considering the significantly improved worker protections). You'd need to account for purchasing power and cost of living, and I don't have the data handy.
But it hardly matters, we can campaign for a higher minimum wage without arguing that the US is a terrible place. And I'll go a bit further--not only is the wild hyperbole unnecessary, it's actively harmful to the campaign for a higher minimum wage because people associate the issue with liars.
The original claim was that the US needed a higher minimum wage.
> $13.50/hr
Where is this number from? The US federal minimum wage is $7.25/hr, unchanged since 2009. The only states with numbers like you've quoted are the ones you're also telling people to look beyond.
> arguing that the US is a terrible place
Neither I, you, nor nacho2sweet are saying that so I'm not sure why you're bringing that into this.
But it hardly matters, we can campaign for a higher minimum wage without arguing that the US is a terrible place. And I'll go a bit further--not only is the wild hyperbole unnecessary, it's actively harmful to the campaign for a higher minimum wage because people associate the issue with liars.