FDR may have tried to frame it that way in 1938 but 25 cents an hour was not a living wage then, either. Not really:
As others have rightly pointed out, the twenty-five-cent minimum wage passed at the time only amounted to the equivalent of a $4.54 per hour minimum wage is 2019 dollars. This wage is enough to avoid starvation but would obviously fall short of the kind of lifestyle proponents of a $15 per hour minimum wage advocate for today.
But also, inflation is only relevant to purchasing power, and does not represent the entire increase to the cost of living. Suvival itself has become more expensive because of new expenses that didn’t exist in 1938. More young adults carry a significant debt cost from education, healthcare expenses, home purchases, car purchases, and general debt. Credit was harder to come by, and was structured to avoid long-term repayments. There are also transportation costs, heating and cooling utility costs, internet, cell service, not to mention the cost of food. Fewer people grow their own food, and you cannot survive a Mid-Atlantic summer without air-conditioning.
$4.50 an hour might have been a poverty wage in 1938, but it would represent destitution today.
FDR may have tried to frame it that way in 1938 but 25 cents an hour was not a living wage then, either. Not really:
Source
Fair point. Politicians have always been shitty.
But also, inflation is only relevant to purchasing power, and does not represent the entire increase to the cost of living. Suvival itself has become more expensive because of new expenses that didn’t exist in 1938. More young adults carry a significant debt cost from education, healthcare expenses, home purchases, car purchases, and general debt. Credit was harder to come by, and was structured to avoid long-term repayments. There are also transportation costs, heating and cooling utility costs, internet, cell service, not to mention the cost of food. Fewer people grow their own food, and you cannot survive a Mid-Atlantic summer without air-conditioning.
$4.50 an hour might have been a poverty wage in 1938, but it would represent destitution today.