Quote · PBD Podcast
Newsom’s Billionaire Tax, Iran War Escalates & Israel Acknowledges Genocide | PBD Podcast #825
Where this was said
Chris Murphy's $25 Minimum Wage Proposal
At 32:34 · chapter starts 29:22
Patrick plays Murphy's Senate speech calling for 'a minimum wage that is a living wage,' then maps out the geographic injustice of a uniform national floor. Median household income in New York is $104,000; in West Virginia it's $61,000; in the lowest-income state it's $59,000. A $25 minimum wage is roughly twice the median in those lowest-income states, making it a wage floor that works in Manhattan but breaks the back of a small business owner in Hope, Arkansas. The key insight PBD hammers: large corporations can absorb the increase through economies of scale in purchasing — paying $1.80 per unit at 100,000-unit volumes versus $12 per unit at 88 units — and they pass the cost on. Small businesses cannot. Adam adds that Murphy's proposal is a calculated distraction, since no state in America has even reached a $25 minimum wage. Tom seals it: in New York, the minimum wage hike accelerated McDonald's investment in kiosks, eliminating the entry-level jobs teenagers and first-time workers needed. [1] — Patrick Bet-David "Raising the minimum wage to $25/hr is a gift to Walmart and McDonald's — they can absorb the labor cost and pass it on through scale buying…" 30:00
Raising the minimum wage to $25/hr is a gift to Walmart and McDonald's — they can absorb the labor cost and pass it on through scale buying power. The small business owner in Toledo paying $12/hr has no such cushion. Worst of all, Democrats think they're helping workers while systematically crushing the businesses that serve working-class communities.
If McDonald's average wage doubles from $12.20 to $25/hr, a Big Mac's price would roughly double from $6.12 to ~$12.42 based purely on labor cost increases.
