The market has already adjusted, independent of government intervention, to offer higher wages. Today, less than 1 percent of workers earn the federal minimum wage.
Democrats want the federal statutory minimum wage increased because it has stood at $7.25 per hour since July 24, 2009, the longest stretch without a congressional increase since the federal minimum was established in 1938.
People forget that the labor market is like any other market, governed by supply and demand. This means that if the wage an employer is willing to pay is too low, he will have fewer applicants and be unable to fill all open positions.
In most of the United States, there would be a shortage of workers at $7.25 an hour, so local employers have found that they must offer higher wages to fill all of their positions. Only 1 percent of hourly-paid workers in 2024 earned at or below the federal minimum wage, a figure that had fallen from 13.4 percent in 1979.
As with the prices of shoes, pomegranates, and swizzle sticks, the market has already found the correct minimum wage naturally, without government intervention, with workers earning considerably more. Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2024 national data, across all 154 million occupied positions, found that the median hourly wage is $23.80 and the mean is $32.66.
The claim from Democrats is that people are starving and cannot live on minimum wage. Conservatives often counter that the U.S. minimum wage was never meant to be a living wage but rather a source of pocket money for high school and college students. Initially, this was not true; the wage was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938 as a livable wage.
However, in the intervening decades, more Americans went to university, and higher-paying service-industry jobs emerged, meaning lawyers, programmers, marketing consultants, and accountants, not food service, which is what most people think of.
At the same time, low-level food and retail jobs were increasingly filled by young people, while heads of families and established adults moved into higher-paying work. Hence, the $23.80 median and $32.66 mean across all jobs.
As for claims of starvation, the U.S. has an obesity problem, with very little, if any, hunger recorded. The 2026 federal poverty level is $15,960 for a single individual and $33,000 for a family of four, published by HHS in January 2026. So, anyone trying to live on minimum wage would qualify for public assistance.
According to payroll company Gusto’s analysis of tens of thousands of small-business employers, workers earning $7.25 per hour have a 70 percent chance of leaving within one year. That statistic shows that these are not career positions. Most people at the bottom stay there only briefly before moving on to better jobs.
Official statistics say that only 1.0 percent of workers earn the federal minimum wage or less. However, the “or less” part needs clarification. Democrats take this to mean people who are being exploited. However, many in the “or less” category earn substantially more than minimum-wage workers.
This includes tipped workers, waitstaff, and bartenders, who appear in the count at their federally permitted base of $2.13 per hour. Their actual compensation tells a different story. The median hourly wage for waiters and waitresses in May 2024, including tips, was $16.23, with the top 10 percent earning above $30.06.
Less commonly, other workers exempt from minimum wage include agricultural workers, camp counselors, and certain entertainers (such as at theme parks) who are provided with free accommodations and sometimes food in addition to their wages.
The economic concept of the rational man says that if these workers believed they would be better off earning the federal minimum wage, they would quit their jobs and take a job in fast food. The fact that they do not suggests they believe they are better off without the federally imposed minimum wage.
Getting back to the concept of supply and demand, the same Democrat lawmakers pushing for a higher statutory minimum wage are also pushing for mass immigration, including illegal immigration. Mass immigration increases the supply of labor, which brings down the price of labor.
Illegal immigrants, in particular, have a destructive impact on wages because, almost by definition, they are coming from countries where a daily wage might equal a U.S. hourly wage. By removing these people from the labor pool, wages will rise naturally, without government intervention.
Ironically, while Democrats have claimed that applying supply-and-demand arguments linking immigration to low wages is racist and Republican propaganda, they have also claimed that deporting illegal aliens will cause the price of food to go up. Consequently, they are clearly acknowledging that illegal workers work for less and that replacing them with native-born or legal employees will cost more.
This is one of those rare moments where reality agrees with them. Deporting people willing to work for a fraction of the wage means wages will go up for everyone else, and companies will not be forced to pay higher minimum wages.
The post No Need for a Higher Minimum Wage: The Market Has Already Increased It appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.