There's about a million people making at or below minimum wage in the US. Not nobody. That isn't counting situations like Uber and Amazon contractors whose expenses like gas and wear&tear aren't appropriately accounted for. But it is true that a smaller percentage of people are at the federal minimum wage, thanks in part to individual states with higher minima.
A majority of states set a higher minimum wage than the federal limit, and unless I missed something the only highly populated state without a higher minimum is Texas.
>There's about a million people making at or below minimum wage in the US. Not nobody.
I'm sure there are people who are working jobs with truly awful sub-minimum wage pay (under the table work, undocumented folks, etc) but I imagine the vast, vast majority of people working "below the minimum wage" are tipped workers who nominally make $2.13/hr but who simply do not report their tips.
Edit: based on the BLS tables that accounts for maybe 61% of those below minimum wage. But the data doesn't make a whole lot of sense. There are 63,000 workers in "management, professional, and related occupations" making less than minimum wage, and aside from CEOs taking $0 paychecks I can't imagine where those jobs are.
But water freezes and gets bigger. It's inflationary!
So in real terms they're paying people less AND company exec bonuses are well beyond reasonable. Yet any argument towards a pay rise on that minimum wage is seen as inflationary.
