Brewtown Gumshoe: The Minimum Wage

President Barack Obama, Pope Francis and the fight against income inequality

A small way to attack the chronic problem of wealth concentration is to modestly boost the federal minimum wage.

As Maura Stephens, of Alternet, reported, "If the minimum hourly wage had advanced with the cost of living and productivity from its high-water mark of 1968, it would have been $21.72 in 2012, according to a March 2012 study by John Schmitt for the Center for Economic Policy and Research." Over the past few decades, our economy has experienced an increasing rate of GDP per capita - a growing economy. Yet, this bounty hasn't found its way into the wages of most workers. Workers haven't shared in this growing prosperity. Here's a series of graphs that speaks volumes about the disparity between wages and general economic growth over the past few decades.