This is why — to cite just one example — the wages of meat packers have declined from around $18 an hour (inflation-adjusted) in the mid-1970s to about $11 an hour at present, and the conditions they labor under have become atrocious over the last generation.
The proposed Illinois minimum wage bill (SB 1565) calls for increasing the minimum wage by 50 cents an hour plus inflation every year over four years until it reaches $10.65 an hour.
To add a little context, compared to 1968, when the federal minimum wage was the equivalent of $9.34 per hour accounting for inflation, even the highest state minimum wage rates have lost value against inflation.
In 1990, those at the bottom were paid $10.85 an hour, adjusted for inflation; last year, it was $10.
During the 2008 campaign, President Obama called for a minimum wage of $9.50 an hour, indexed to inflation.
According to the recommendation, all businesses will be paying at least $15 an hour, adjusted for inflation, by 2025.
In Chicago, nearly half of the city council has signed on to a bill to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour tied to inflation.
Until 15 or 20 years ago, meatpacking plants in the United States were staffed by highly paid, unionized employees who earned about $18 an hour, adjusted for inflation.
Once upon a time, a large number earned at least $20 an hour, or its inflation-adjusted equivalent, and now so many of them don't.
Two and a half hours after the inflation began, the seafloor level stabilized at about 1 meter above its original position.
The minimum wage once went up regularly, peaking in 1968 at the equivalent of $7.08 an hour today, adjusted for inflation.
