Minimum Wage

I once read a well documented history of the minimum wage law. Unfortunately, I have no idea what the name of the book was because apparently this book tells a very different story than the general public impression of the law and the reason it was created.

To my shock, people on Metafilter told me that minimum wage is essentially a racist policy of oppression which is the exact opposite of what I had read.

In a nutshell, the book I read indicated that following the American Civil War, freed Blacks had it worse than slaves thanks to rampant racism and Jim Crow laws. One reason: Blacks were paid half what Whites got paid.

So the federal minimum wage law was proposed to try to force the South to pay Blacks the same as Whites.

And it initially failed spectacularly because racist southerners were flat out unwilling to "pay a Black man a White man's wage" and often simply fired Black employees.

Along with segregation and a shortage of Black high schools in the South such that it was difficult for Blacks to attend school past the eighth grade, this helped foster the exodus of Blacks out of the Deep South and into many large northern cities. Some families had a child repeat the eighth grade until they could move the following year to someplace the kid could attend high school.

The federal minimum wage law didn't help raise Black wages until WW2 came along which helped force people to pay those wages to whomever they could hire. Shipping so many soldiers overseas meant there was a shortage of workers back home and they were hiring anyone they could get -- even, le gasp, women.

You might have heard of Rosie the Riveter. Yes?

And now we continue to have social issues people imagine they can fix with passing some law when in many cases a new law won't really fix it.

People continue to bellyache about wanting to raise the minimum wage when I think a more fundamental issue is a lack of minimum housing. 

Minimum wage didn't do what it was envisioned as being able to do -- imposing equality on the racist Deep South -- and I have heard that it now is seen by most people as intended to oppress Blacks and poor people which I don't really understand how anyone can think that but i don't follow politics and people who do have lectured me for being an ignorant fool for being unaware of this evil plot and bad intentions behind this law.

It's no surprise to me that historical records don't clearly state the goal of federal minimum wage was to combat racist practices keeping Blacks impoverished. Such things were often not stated bluntly.

When Elvis first hit the radio, they listed his high school as code for "We know he SOUNDS Black, but he's not. He went to a White high school."

If you didn't know the context and details, hearing them tell you his high school doesn't necessarily tell you they were signifying his race. 

Race has long been a hot button issue in the US. People who want to fix racist policies frequently find some other justification for the policy and don't tell potential saboteurs the real purpose.

Unfortunately for me it makes me look foolish and ignorant to people already inclined to see me as such and happy to call me stupid to my face because I was homeless and talking to a bunch of classist ass hats who imagined they were good and idealistic people making the world a better place while actively bullying a homeless woman for trying to sort her problems and trying to establish an adequate earned income.