"Back when I was a kid, a minimum-wage job could support a family of three. Today, a full-time minimum-wage job in America won’t keep a mama and a baby out of poverty." -Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
During the 1960s, the minimum wage was increased several times and extended to the retail and service industries. Prior to the 1960s, the minimum wage was low and had limited coverage. Its effects were modest. Mainly, it favored northern at the expense of southern manufacturing. Again, prior to the 1960s, the minimum wage had little systematic effect on teenage or minority employment and, in fact, prior to the enactment of fair labor laws at the state and then the federal level, black unemployment was similar to white unemployment.
With the increases in the minimum wage and the extension of coverage to the retail and service industries during the 1960s, in addition to fair employment laws, things changed dramatically. Those who were employed enjoyed higher wages while teenage unemployment rose dramatically. To be sure, many other things were happening at about the same time. A short list would include the liberalization of welfare, the war in Viet Nam, urban riots and other violence, the sexual revolution, and widespread experimentation with psychedelic drugs.
More HERE
