Minimum Wage Quotes
- The page discusses raising the minimum wage in the United States
- It provides money quotes from several politicians supporting an increased minimum wage, including Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
- Quotes also discuss how raising the minimum wage could help the economy by allowing low-wage workers to spend more
- Additional points made include that taxpayers subsidize low wages through social programs and that Wall Street bonuses exceed what minimum wage workers earn in a year
- At the end is a video discussing the minimum wage compared to Wall Street bonus pools
- The page also has tools to search for and share the quotes on raising the minimum wage
“We should raise the minimum wage so that no one who works full time has to live in poverty” — Barack Obama
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“I think the minimum wage ought to keep pace with inflation” — Mitt Romney
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“We should be addressing income inequality, creating a jobs program, raising the minimum wage, passing pay equity for women and expanding social security” — Bernie Sanders
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“If billionaires are able to buy elections and elect right wing candidates, there is no way we will ever address climate change, college education affordability, job creation, raising the minimum wage and taking on Wall Street” — Bernie Sanders
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“Ideas of the kind that are now taken for granted in American life — nutrition and welfare support for dependent children; free medical care for the impoverished and the aged; the right of workers to organize a union, to receive a minimum wage, to strike; interracial cooperation” — Neil Sheehan
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“You made that money off of the backs of undocumented people, you made that money off of the backs of black and brown people being paid under a living wage, you made that money off of the backs of single mothers. No one ever makes a billion dollars. You take a billion dollars” — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
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“Give America a raise” — Barack Obama
Asking Congress in his Jan. 28, 2014 State of the Union message to raise the minimum wage.
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“The $28.5 billion in bonuses doled out to Wall Street employees is double the annual pay for all 1,007,000 Americans who work full-time at the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour” — Sarah Anderson
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“The person earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 isn’t going out to eat at restaurants. They’re not taking piano lessons. They’re not going to the gym or the yoga studio. They’re not sending mom flowers on Mother’s day. What good is this person in the economy? If you raise it to $15 an hour, they’re doing all of those things” — Nick Hanauer
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“When businesses pay workers a living wage, taxpayers are relieved of the burden of funding the poverty programs like food stamps and medical assistance and rent assistance that those workers need” — Nick Hanauer
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“Hey, you know what else is good for Capitalism? A living-wage workforce that can afford to, y’know, buy shit” — John Fugelsang
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“I want to raise the national minimum wage. People who work full-time should not be on the poverty line” — Hillary Clinton
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“In five states last night, the minimum wage was on the ballot. And in five states, the minimum wage won. A message to Donald Trump” — Ralph Nader
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“You need to know that a member of Congress who refuses to allow the minimum wage to come up for a vote made more money during last year’s one-month government shutdown than a minimum wage worker makes in an entire year” — Bill Clinton
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The following video looks at the minimum wage in contrast to Wall Street bonus pools.
The minimum wage would be $33.51 today if it grew at the same rate as Wall Street bonuses. In 1989, the minimum wage was $3.35 and the average Wall Street Bonus was $13,300. The minimum wage has been raised seven times since. It’s now $7.25, last raised in July 2009. An increase of approximately 116% since 1989. Wall Street bonuses went up over $1,000% since 1989, to $153,700.
The total Wall Street bonus pool for 2018 was $27.5 billion, more than triple the combined earnings of the country’s 640,000 minimum wage workers. Those bonuses are on top of the average Wall Street salary, which in 2017 was $422,500. The U.S. median household income in 2017 was $61,372. The inequality was pointed out by Inequality.org, a. Project by the Institute for Policy Studies.
Its research also noted $24.7 million was the average compensation for CEOs of the largest investment banks. On average, their senior executives and managers are 74% male. In contrast, 37% of Americans making minimum wage are male. On average, 82% of top execs and managers at same banks are white, while 55% of people in jobs paying less than $15 an hour are white.
The income gap continued to grow in that same period. Income for the top 1% of families grew 37% from 2009 to 2015 compared to 7.6% for the bottom 99%. Greed for lack of a better word, is good.