I’m not an economist or a sociology major. I’m speaking from observation, not theory. I’m not feeling what politicians are trying to pass into law as a one-size-fits-all “living wage,” which is defined as the minimum income a worker needs in a given location to meet basic needs — housing, food, transportation, health care, and other essentials — without government assistance or extra jobs. It reminds me of the $1,200 stimulus check — people buying new TVs and spending like drunken sailors when it barely covered a month’s rent.
Twenty dollars an hour is roughly $800 a week before taxes, maybe $600 after. And that’s if you’re getting close to full-time hours, which many people aren’t. In places like D.C., people will flee to Virginia and Maryland, where they’re taxed less on higher wages. The higher wage still doesn’t match the cost of living, so workers come to D.C. to earn and take the money back to cheaper states. That means less local foot traffic, less profit, and less ability for businesses to pay those higher wages. I think about the higher-wage jobs I had at LA Fitness; I don’t see those in D.C. now.
I’ve lived in many places and worked through boom towns that are now hollowed out. Drive down I‑95 through Reading and Allentown, Pennsylvania; my home state of New Jersey, where places like Camden, Paterson, and Atlantic City, once‑thriving economies, are now desolate. Women are prostituting themselves for money, fathers are selling drugs or robbing, while mom and pop owners have to barricade their checkouts because people are angry, hungry, and desperate. People are willing to rob or kill to have potato chips; over time, working people steer clear because they don’t want to be carjacked or robbed in these places. It’s a vicious cycle. Despite all these failures, politicians do a daily double by slapping more regulations, wage hikes, and tax-the-rich policies
Calls for higher wages are a sugar high. If the cost of living is unaffordable, why not make sure every corporation hires workers for $100,000 a year, which will cover expenses?
I see post after post demanding wage hikes and wealth taxes in the wake of Elon Musk’s trillion-dollar pay package. Bernie Sanders called it an “absurdity” and pushed for raising the cap on taxable income; Elizabeth Warren has made similar calls. Musk has become the world’s first trillionaire while many people are struggling just to get by.
Not to be outdone, Senator Chris Murphy — who clearly has presidential ambitions — introduced a bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $25 an hour. As Murphy put it: “It’s not like we can’t pay a $25 minimum wage, we just choose not to because we’ve become okay with dozens and dozens of people in this country making hundreds of billions of dollars.”
Let that marinate. Most of these politicians haven’t run a business, yet they’re busy villainizing the people who create jobs and already pay above a so‑called living wage. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 870,000 Americans work at or below the federal minimum wage — roughly 1% of hourly workers. Meanwhile, Musk and other billionaires say that in 10 to 20 years, work may be optional and money largely irrelevant thanks to AI and robotics. So I have to ask: is this about optics, or actually helping the dispossessed?
I challenge every economist and wage advocate to walk through Washington, D.C., and look at what these hikes actually do. Wage advocates never ask the obvious question: if someone can’t get hired at $10 an hour, why would they be more employable at $25? Walk through Ward 7 or Ward 8. You’ll go blocks without seeing foot traffic — just shuttered buildings and men on corners. It’s becoming the same on the corner where I sell papers. Back in 2010, D.C. was a boom town — thrift shops, mom‑and‑pop stores, jobs everywhere. You could walk across the street and pick up a second shift if you needed one.
Wage hikes weren’t the only cause of the decline, but they were a contributor. That Happy Meal at McDonald’s that cost $3 now costs $8. A slice of pizza and a soda that used to run $8 is $20. A burger, fries, and a soda that used to cost $10 now cost $30 once you add higher wages, fees, and an auto‑tip. Streets that used to be packed 24/7 now look like a disaster movie — boarded‑up buildings, rotting storefronts, businesses and jobs fleeing to Maryland and Virginia, where wages are lower, and the cost of living is reasonable. A memo to states that haven’t raised their wages yet: vote no.
What do I know? I’ve never walked the halls of the Brookings Institution or sat on a progressive think‑tank panel. I learned business by losing money and making it, by getting hired and fired, by watching prosperity turn to misery inside of a month.
Here’s what I see: displacement and student‑loan debt have pushed more people onto government assistance, so politicians try to make the rich pay for it. But the rich don’t pay — they leave or raise prices. The same politicians pushing the living wage also passed bad trade deals, high taxes, and policies that let a handful of investors buy up land. Now they try to fix the damage by raising labor costs, which just pushes prices higher and makes everything less affordable. Raise wages, and businesses mark up prices to cover the new labor cost. At this rate, they’ll be calling for $50 an hour in a decade.
A living wage eliminates the purpose of a low‑wage job. A low‑wage job is like being drafted in the seventh round of the NFL. The player who gets picked isn’t there to pay rent on day one — he’s there to get into the industry, and he’ll do it for next to nothing because where you start doesn’t determine where you end up. The alternative is not being drafted at all.
It happens all the time. Kurt Warner stocked grocery shelves and played in the Arena League before landing a backup job with the Rams. When the starter got hurt, he stepped in, won a Super Bowl, made millions, and ended up in the Hall of Fame. Tom Brady sat on the bench until Drew Bledsoe got injured. Then he made millions, took pay cuts to help his team build around him, and now he’s a broadcaster and franchise owner. That’s what a low‑wage job is for.
My dad always said to keep $2 in your pocket so you’d never be broke. That’s why I sold newspapers. I made $10 my first day. I didn’t scream that it wasn’t enough — I studied the guys making $20, then the ones making $100. I didn’t play the victim. I took the bad hand I was dealt and turned it into a straight flush.
I became a bartender the same way. I started washing dishes — not because I lacked skill, but because I’d messed up my life and was grateful for something besides selling papers. When I got sick and lost that job, my boss made me a server. On my first day, I worked all day and made $60. I could have complained, but I watched others make $300 and realized I had to get better. People walked out, I rang in wrong orders, I couldn’t handle the volume, but they stuck with me.
Then they gave me the worst shift — Saturday morning, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., dead. Instead of sulking, I used the slow time to learn how to make drinks, clean, organize, and treat every customer like gold. I never judged the bad tippers; I treated everyone the same. When someone called out, I picked up extra shifts.
Did it pay every bill? No. I combined that job with selling papers and running delivery routes just to make ends meet. I wrote on the side, never making real money, because I dreamed of publishing a book. I never expected six figures from a paper — I wrote because I believed in the work. I bartended because on a good night, I could make more than some professionals. I started with the worst shift, worked overtime when I could, and treated selling newspapers like a real business, not a corner hustle.
High wages won’t solve the affordability crisis. That comes down to money management — not putting yourself in situations over your head and knowing when to pay out of pocket or borrow smartly. Twenty dollars an hour won’t get anyone an apartment in D.C. anyway. And nobody asks the obvious question: if only 1% of workers earn $7.25, who are you fighting for? Most people who work are satisfied with what they have because the real alternative isn’t a higher wage — it’s no income at all.
