The Minimum Wage in America Is Pretty Damn Low


Everyone’s talking about the minimum wage today. I’m in favor of raising it, and I always have been, but a picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s a picture for you. Courtesy of the OECD, it shows the minimum wage in various rich countries as a percentage of the average wage. The United States isn’t quite the lowest, but we’re pretty damn close.

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Our nonprofit newsroom is funded by donors from every state in the union—blue, red, and purple, all part of a community of readers who care about the future of our democracy.

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