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Comment by hashberry | Hacker News Reader

An interesting tidbit on minimum wage:

> According to the Pew Research Center, when adjusted for inflation, the federal minimum wage in America peaked at $8.54 in 1968. If the federal minimum wage had kept up with increases in worker productivity since then, in 2012 it would have been $21.72 an hour. https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/09/07/there-is...

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I know nothing of economics, but I’m curious how relevant comparing against our own historical productivity actually is. For example, shouldn’t the comparison also be against productivity and productivity/wage growth in other countries we’re competing with? Is productivity even something that can be measured in such a way that useful comparisons can actually be made across time periods?

> Is productivity even something that can be measured in such a way that useful comparisons can actually be made across time periods?

[Inflation-adjusted] GDP is held to represent the productivity of an entire country in a way where one can make historical contrasts.

Therefore, [inflation-adjusted] GDP per capita (a.k.a. PPP, Purchasing Power Parity) could be a valid measure of average individual worker productivity.

Wait, are they trying to say that minimum wage was $8.54 in 1968? I remember it being $4.25 when I was a kid in the 80’s.

It was $8.54 in 1968 "when adjusted for inflation", not the actual value it was at the time. (at least according to the article, I didn't calculate it myself)

It's not interesting. It' cherry picking.

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