No, it’s not the Onion; it’s the New York Times. Columnist Ginia Bellafante explains:
On Jan. 1, the new minimum wage, set at $15 an hour, went into effect in New York City, and most companies employing more than 10 people have to pay it. … But how much will the new standard do to alleviate some of the most punishing aspects of the city’s affordability crisis? …
[A] report, sponsored in part by City Harvest, New York’s largest supplier of food to pantries and hunger charities … found that more than two in five households in New York City lacked the income to cover necessities. …
A single parent with two school-age children, for example would need to make nearly $69,427 a year, according to City Harvest’s Self-Sufficiency calculator. That amounts to an hourly wage of just under $33. …
What this tells us is that the arrival of a $15 hourly minimum wage cannot be considered the end of something. …
In many, many cases, a $15 hourly wage will not bring a family, or even a single person, to an adequate living standard. That hardly means the fight was worthless; it just means the war is ongoing.
What I don’t understand is why Ms. Bellafante sets her sights at a paltry $33 per hour? I’ve written before about an exciting new political organization called the “And A Pony Party.” Here’s what the AAPP’s platform has to say about the minimum wage:
Other parties advocate minimum wage laws, but only the AAPP advocates raising the minimum wage to $175 per hour and giving all workers a pony. (We ask why our political opponents lack the courage to stand up for our working people.)
Why, indeed? That’s the trouble with progressives these days. They think too small!