I still think it’s crazy our minimum wage is so low ($7.50/hr today vs $11/hour in late 1960s in today’s money). IMHO, it should be pinned to productivity growth since the 1960s (the question is: should we have higher or lower inequality than in the 1960s? The most conservative answer would be “the same”, in which case you tie the ratio of GDP per capita to minimum wage to the same level it was in the 1960s.), which would put the federal minimum wage somewhere north of $20/hour. (Or perhaps a regional approach where a minimum wage of $15/hour is universal and then above that, minimum wage at 40hours/week is three times what it’d need to support a two bedroom apartment rent at median local prices.)

I’m also convinced that stagnated wages has caused stagnation in productivity growth, because as minimum wage becomes cheaper through inflation, it makes less sense for companies to invest in productivity enhancing automation and efficiency as they can just hire cheap workers and fire them as needed.