If Georgia wants to address affordability, lawmakers must raise minimum wage
“Most of the rise in inequality over the last four decades has redistributed wages away from most workers.”- Economic Policy Institute (EPI) (Sept. 19, 2024)
The national minimum wage of $7.25 per hour has not been raised since 2009. Right-wing ideologues say raising this minimum wage is a revolutionary concept. It is not. It’s simply fair.
Raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $20 will not suddenly lead to total income equity in the United States or Georgia.
However, it would clearly be a small step in the right direction and would be supported by 74% of voters, according to Data for Progress, a progressive think tank focused on data science.
Compare salary increases between executives and workers
America has become more economically stratified over time. EPI analyzed historical compensation data for CEOs and others.
What EPI found was shocking. Compensation for CEOs is 290 times as much as the average employee (2023). That is up from 21 times as much in 1965.
From 1978 to 2023, CEO pay increased an amazing 1,085%. In 1978, the average CEO annual compensation for the 350 largest corporations was about $1.4 million. In 2022, that CEO made an average $17 million annually.
Meanwhile, pay for the common worker during that time period went from $57,000 a year to $71,000 - a 24% increase.
Pew Research recently issued a report showing how the U.S. middle class is declining.
One chart “Share of Americans in the Middle Class” illustrates how the middle class dropped from 61% of the USA population in 1971 to 51% in 2023. And the proportion of citizens who are low income increased from 27% to 30%. Regarding our children under 18, 38% lived in low-income households.
As might be expected, wages are particularly low for those with less education. Over half (54%) of those without a high school degree are lower income. For those with degrees, only 12% are low income.
It is also important to note which job categories have the highest proportion of low income workers: personal care/food preparation (39%), transportation/construction/farming (32%) and maintenance (25%).
Another chart illustrates that immigrants are more likely to be low income (36%) versus U.S. born (29%). This has racial overtones, due to low wages among those born in Central and South America, as well as Africa.
Prices are high and a dollar is worth less than it was in 2009
The purchasing power of a dollar has decreased substantially since the last minimum wage increase in 2009.
Prices at the start of 2026 are 151% higher than 17 years ago, according to the CPI Inflation Calculator: “A dollar today only buys 66.225% of what it could buy back then.”
But the GOP has stood in the way of correcting this situation. Florida Gov. DeSantis is a good example of someone professing to be for common people while working against them.
He was first elected because he painted his Democratic opponent as having a far left socialist platform, in part for advocating a Florida minimum wage increase. GOP conservatives use that “socialist” right-wing catch phrase to disparage anything they don’t agree with ideologically.
DeSantis’ interpretation is factually incorrect, according to every accepted definition of the term. According to the unique DeSantis definition, we have been a “socialist” nation since 1938. That’s when the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which included a minimum wage, was first enacted with both GOP and Democratic Congressmen voting for it.
Minimum wage increases have been legislated 22 times since 1938- by both the Republican and Democratic “socialists” running our nation. And it’s long overdue when we consider that minimum wage legislation was last passed in 2009.
Having a reasonable minimum wage decreases inequality while encouraging those at the margins of our society to get a job. Frankly, with the constantly rising cost of living and failure of the mandated minimum wage base to keep up, that just seems logical and entirely reasonable.
Democratic legislators are for it. However, they cannot pass legislation alone either here in Georgia or nationally. They need Republicans on board.
But that would mean Republican elected officials in Georgia and our nation truly being populists who help the downtrodden versus just spewing classist/racist rhetoric to inflame blue collar workers to win an election as they did in 2024. So, obviously there is very little chance of that happening with the leadership of today’s GOP in Georgia or our nation.
Jack Bernard, a retired business executive and former chair of the Jasper County Commission and Republican Party, was the first director of health planning for Georgia.
