I work in food service as a 22 year old and I’ve already passed the 6 figure mark. Idk what you’re talking about the math definitely adds up if you’re not wasting piles of cash on needless luxuries.

Minimum wage acts as a magnet for many jobs. By having it be a higher number more jobs won’t increase their pay above minimum. When minimum isn’t livable however, you have corporate competition for wages occurring, driving up wages as we’re seeing now.

This “there’s no worker shortage there’s a wage shortage” should be the default. If businesses are having a hard time bringing people in the door to work then wages are going to go up. That’s the absolute best thing for the worker.

There ends up being major equilibriums between wages for different jobs, and artificially raising a minimum wage often crushes multiple jobs together that really shouldn’t be.

Anyone who’s not an idiot has taken advantage of the current job market to increase their income by very solid margins. Anyone who hasn’t is just gonna let themselves be a cog in capitalism. It’s personal choice.