“Starting wage for unskilled labor” is what they changed. Because we’re lazy, the reporter called it minimum wage.

In the small Arkansas town I grew up in, when the Tyson plant changed what we called the “starting wage” it was a big deal. Back in 97-98 it went up to $6.05, which got me to apply there and get a job. That was almost a dollar more than the US minimum wage.

I didn’t last very long. That wasn’t for me. I instead went to a mcse boot camp and got a job offered to me by the place that ran the camp. They had a service side that hired me at $11.25/hr. I was billed out to clients at $125/hr. The rest is history.

When I returned to see some high school friends around 2000, the starting rate at the Tyson plant was up to $7/hr.