...and very little corresponding increase in income. The last time the US minimum wage was raised was 15 years ago, almost to the day! Spend some time talking to people and you'll discover their actual wages, not inflation-adjusted wages, but actual wages, haven't appreciated much in the past 15 years. But boy oh boy have prices increased! As have corporate profits! Makes it rather obvious where the money is going, doesn't it?
https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2023/feb/nominal-w...
The number of people making federal minimum wage is tiny, around 0.1% of all workers:
This is largely meaningless. My first job in high school paid $6.51/hr. The minimum wage at the time was $6.50/hr. I would not be part of the 0.1% earning minimum wage - but in practice I wouldn't be any better off than them either.
I suspect a lot of employers play this game so they can claim "pays above minimum wage" in their job posting (that's what my employer did).
https://www.epi.org/publication/stagnant-wages-in-2014/
However, 10th percentile wages are now $14/hour, which is almost double the minimum:
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ecec.pdf
and the number of people making exactly minimum wage has shrunk dramatically, from ~1.7% to ~0.1%. So it seems reasonable to say that the number of people making close to minimum wage is now quite small.
Given that minimum wage is a leave school asap, don't bother learning anything, then just push a broom round a shop.
You used to get 50% more of that by working hard at school, spending years on you career, and getting a median income.
Now you get 30% more.
Increasing minimum wage just means you're reducing the relative wage of those who set their goals a little higher.