Today, March 1st, a minimum-wage worker catches up to what she made in 2009--the last time Congress raised the poverty-level minimum wage (as my colleague @rwest817 shows in new @amprog analysis) americanprogress.org/issues/poverty…
In 2018, a worker earning $7.25/hr must work an extra 41 days—more than 2 additional months!—just to earn the same amount as she did in a single year when the federal minimum wage was last increased. 2/x
As a result, a full-time minimum-wage worker will lose a staggering $2,370 in purchasing power this year.
That's more than ***47 times*** the average tax cut she gets under the #TrumpTaxScam. 3/x
That's more than ***47 times*** the average tax cut she gets under the #TrumpTaxScam. 3/x
Trump & his colleagues in Congress keep telling us how much "compassion" they have for struggling Americans. How much they want to help the "forgotten man and woman."
Yet for nearly 9 years, the GOP has refused to give minimum-wage workers a raise. 4/x
Yet for nearly 9 years, the GOP has refused to give minimum-wage workers a raise. 4/x
As the minimum wage has shrunk to a poverty wage, more and more low-wage workers now need to turn to Medicaid, SNAP, and other vital programs to make ends meet because wages aren't enough to live on. 5/x
Yet instead of raising the minimum wage, Trump & Speaker Ryan are hell-bent on kicking workers while they're down, by slashing the very programs that help workers get by when wages aren't enough. 6/x
It's no accident that the centerpiece of GOP proposals to slash Medicaid, SNAP, housing & other vital programs is so-called "work requirements."
It's all a smokescreen to distract us from the real problem facing struggling workers -- wages that aren't enough to live on. 7/x
It's all a smokescreen to distract us from the real problem facing struggling workers -- wages that aren't enough to live on. 7/x
In fact, as previous work by @rwest817 has shown, if Congress raised the minimum wage to just $12/hr -- they'd save $53 billion (over 10 yrs) just in SNAP, as fewer workers would need to turn to nutrition assistance to feed themselves & their families. americanprogress.org/issues/poverty… 8/x
Keep this mind the next time Trump/ Ryan/other GOP leaders claim so-called "work requirements" are about "helping" anyone.
Taking health insurance, or food, or housing away from struggling workers does nothing to raise wages -- and only makes it harder to find & keep a job. 9/x
Taking health insurance, or food, or housing away from struggling workers does nothing to raise wages -- and only makes it harder to find & keep a job. 9/x
**Good summary of why work requirements have nothing to do with helping anyone work: americanprogress.org/issues/poverty… 10/x
IN SUM: If Trump & the GOP were serious about helping the "forgotten man and woman," they'd #raisethewage -- and keep their #handsoff the programs that help struggling workers make ends meet when wages aren't enough. /end
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