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$17/hr is $35,360/yr. The median income in Arkansas, the state with the lowest cost of living, is currently $36,761.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/arkansas
It’s not a compromise. Federal minimum wage should be enough to live on in the poorest state. More than that would create private business deserts in poor areas, forcing the locals to exclusively patronize corporations. More of the population would need social program assistance to help pay for the increased cost of our domestic food supply.
... If we're talking about Arkansas... all of that has already happened.
You know Walmart is... from, and based in Arkansas, right?
20 ish % of the population is already below the poverty line... and the poverty line is basically 'lets assume you have no rent and are homeless and just want to be able to buy food'.
That means 20% of the state is already getting SSI, SNAP, TANF, etc.
...
The US Federal poverty line is about $35 dollars a day. about $13k a year.
If you converted that to a full time wage, thats about $6.75 an hour.
The US Federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.
50 cents of difference.
Hasn't changed since 2009.
From 2009 to 2025, if you go by CPI, a single 2009 dollar is worth about $1.50 2025 dollars, that is to say, prices have risen by 50% in 16 years.
...
Arkansas is literally an economic disaster zone.
41% of the state struggles with getting their basic needs met, multiple independent observers and international aid agencies have compared the level of poverty, lack of education, access to healthcare... to areas of the world recently devastated by wars.
You say the cost of living is 36-37k.
That must be for a single person.
As of Nov 24, the median individual income in Arkansas is $29,740.
That makes the median wage about $15.50 an hour.
The median individual income in Arkansas cannot afford the average cost of living for a single person.
Arkansas is already the state equivalent of a mentally unsound person being deemed incompitent to make their own decisions and be declared a ward of the state.
Bumping up the min wage would be more like doubling the care and support staff for the assisted living facility that is Arkansas, already massively dependent on Federal subsidies to the poor.... and the laughably tiny tax rates on giant megacorps that allow said megacorps to dominate its economy.
...
If you want to see what unchecked hypercapitalism looks like, you're looking at Arkansas.
Exactly my point. A $17/hr minimum wage in Arkansas would correct that while still allowing small businesses to employ workers. $25/hr would ensure it remains a corporate-controlled state.
I get that.
What... would actually make much more sense would be to index the minimum wage to some other, per state metric.
A fraction of median income, some formula that actually does a good job of estimating a minimum standard of living...
But, that will never happen, because ... well basically half of voters and half state legislatures fundamentally either do not understand how to, or believe in laying a foundational safety net layer for society.
The income and CoL disparities within the US are... basically as wild as the differences between EU member states, but our governance systems are... well, pretty much fundamentally broken at this point.
So that’s what the states are supposed to do with their own minimum wage. The federal minimum wage is not the one we should be challenging for livable wages unless the wage is unlivable everywhere. States absolutely should be setting their own minimum wage to keep people out of poverty in their state. For example, the federal minimum wage is currently $7.25/hr, but NY state minimum wage is $16.50/hr.
An adjustable minimum wage would increase the wealth gap. Companies would not be providing cost of living increases along with performance increases, keeping more people near the bottom.
We need our government to regulate prices on essential goods and/or subsidize them through taxation to keep them from inflating faster than wages increase. Nordic nations employ mixed-economics for this and it’s quite successful.