Had a chat with my 16 year old nephew about fast food wages

So my nephew works at a McDonald's in Austin and makes $14 an hour. I told him that's more than I made at my first job in 2005. He looked at me and said 'well yeah, because $14 doesn't buy what it used to'. That got me thinking about how we always compare wages to the past without adjusting for inflation. Like my first apartment was $600 a month and now his mom rents a 1 bedroom for $1400. Maybe the real controversial take is that minimum wage should just be tied to the cost of living in each city automatically. Does anyone else think the old 'I made less back then' argument is totally useless when prices have tripled?

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1 Comment

the_piper27d ago

Gotta admit that kids smarter than most adults on this one.