The fact that the minimum wage has remained unchanged for so long has an interesting economic consequence: it has effectively abolished the concept of a minimum wage. Nordic countries like Germany don't have a minimum wage. Rather, labor unions negotiate pay rates for various industries, and businesses are free to set their own rates. Left-wing people in the US think that abolishing the minimum wage would be a disaster, as businesses would be free to pay their workers peanuts. But this is not what's actually happening in other industrialized countries without a mandated minimum wage. Sure, a business could offer $4/hour, but because it would not be a liveable wage, no one would take those jobs, even people who are desperate. Likewise, $7.25/hour, the mandated minimum wage in the US, is now so low compared to the cost of living that no business is paying that anymore, even the penny-pinching ones. So the labor market situation in the US at the moment resembles more that of Nordic European countries.
It may be that the lack of a minimum wage in a situation of labor scarcity empowers workers. When there is a mandated minimum wage, a business can pay that, because it's an easy decision. But when there is no minimum wage, businesses have to work harder to determine an appropriate pay level. They have to conduct market research, hire consultants, study their competitors, and make a decision.
That employers pay more than the minimum wage is purely a function of labor power. Should unemployment hit >20% again like it did in April 2020, there would be no shortage of people willing to work $4/hour jobs if it was literally the only option to keep food in their mouths. There are plenty of states that forbid able-bodied adults without children from accessing SNAP, without any exemption for high unemployment rates or negative GDP growth.
most are food service and retail -jobs that work you like a rented mule. pay minimum wage,have no benefits and only give you 31 hours a week with a schedule that changes constantly.
