Do we need a federal maximum wage?
Apr 23, 2014, 4:24 PM
This is the story that YOU wanted to hear us talk about! It received 42 percent of the vote in our Radioactive poll!
While a majority of the nation mulls a hike in the federal minimum wage, a small group of Americans are beginning to push for a maximum wage.
You read that right. A group wants to put a cap on the maximum amount the rich can take in each year.
On The Week, columnist Damon Linker said the federal maximum wage is not meant to step in the way of capitalism, but keep the rich from becoming exponentially richer and influential.
No, this isn’t some Marxist fantasy. It’s a clear-eyed response to the fact that in 2012 the ratio of CEO compensation to that of a typical worker in the United States was an astonishing 273-to-1. That’s a gap made possible by a rise in CEO compensation of 875 percent since 1978 — an era when the typical worker’s salary has increased by a mere 5.4 percent.
Linker argues that, even if we tied the maximum wage to the minimum, the rich would still stay rich. At a rate of 1,000 times the minimum wage, wealthy people would still bring in $15 million annually. That’s not too shabby.
What do you think of imposing a federal maximum wage? Would you vote for it?
