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I suspect Scrooge kept Bob Cratchit working for more hours than what’s in the modern workweek, skewing the per hour.
Not that that’s an argument against raising the minimum wage today.
Taking minimum federal wage of $7.25 Bob Cratchit would have around 73 hour work weeks. That makes around 10-11 hours a day every day or around 12 hours Monday to Saturday. It skews numbers, but still the destitution allegory works.
~I’m not an USA-ian.~
Um actually, that’s actually $13.26/hr 🤓
But fun fact: That only makes a difference for one state. Nebraska has $13.50/hr as their minimum. In total there are 22 states which are higher.
Less fun fact: 20 of the states use the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25/hr.
Just out of curiosity, what colour are those states on political maps?
I used this as my source.
It seems like out of the 20 states using the federal minimum wage, only New Hampshire is blue.
Average minimum wage:
Red: ~$9.04/hr
Blue: ~$14.86/hrMedian minimum wage:
Red: $7.25/hr
Blue: ~$15.13/hrEdit: This, of course, doesn’t take buying power into account. So take it with a grain of salt I guess. Or feel free to work it out yourself and post it for the rest of us… 😄
Which states did you use for red/blue? Is it based on the last election results?
Yep. I’m not American though, so I could certainly have made a mistake somewhere.
I’ve used the same one, so let’s see how it goes to answer this question:
Edit: This, of course, doesn’t take buying power into account. So take it with a grain of salt I guess. Or feel free to work it out yourself and post it for the rest of us…
Based on latest available data for Regional Price Parities (RPP) from 2024, taken from the BEA (Bureau of Economic Analysis) (for the curious, look for SARPP Regional price parities by state), we get the following:
Average Median Blue 13.96 14.34 Red 9.76 8.22 However, it should be noted above info isn’t perfect, as I’m using wages from your source for 2025. I’m kinda lazy right now to search for one from 2024
Convertion based on following formula:
real wage = nominal wage × (100 ÷ RPP)
edit: Laziness subsided, found wage data for 2024, which gives:
Average Median Blue 13.62 14.00 Red 9.47 8.22 That’s interesting! I would’ve thought that the difference would be bigger than that.
Under ‘Murican Health care, Tiny Tim’s medical bills would’ve buried the Cratchit’s before the plot even started.
https://yt.chocolatemoo53.com/watch?v=ZfZseKmHNwo
Garys Economics - Know your history
“In this country, 150 years ago, people were living in desperate poverty. That’s going to happen again.”
Always updoot Garys Economics.
Thanks for the better link, Snoons. Much appreciated.
o7
