Our Tragic Minimum Wage Jobs and the More Tragic History of Minimum Wage

Bottom Lines Top Dollars

In this episode, the Ladies Who Crunch explore minimum wage, living wages, and the idea of maximum wages. Income inequality in the US and Canada is worse than it was in the 90s, and we were mad about it then, when we worked minimum wage jobs.

Stories you’ll hear include: what minimum wages jobs we’ve had, who was the last person in your family to make minimum wage, and were they able to live off it? You’ll learn how minimum wage relates to living wages [hint: it’s lower than the basic minimum needed] and how maximum wages have been incentivized in the past, and how they show up today.

If you want to learn more about how income inequality negatively impacts society, democracy, and work, check out Season 1 Ep 3, on Billionaires.

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This episode is the first in our second season. We are calling this season "Punks Not Dead and Capitalism Still Sucks" and it explores the question: how did 90s and 2000’s punk intersect with money, and what can that teach us today? What if you don’t “Live fast die young,” but have to meet needs over the course of your life instead?

Listeners will hear stories -- from “the punkest way I ever made money,” to “the worst minimum wage job I ever had,” to “magic bullshit I did to try to avoid working” -- as well as learn facts about how the financial systems around us operate.

The show is written and produced by the Ladies Who Crunch: Queer femme artist/organizers turned financial professionals Laura and Hadassah, who explore the alternative ways of being that crafted the bedrock of who they are today to understand what they learned - and had to unlearn - from punk in order to figure out their money lives and to understand financial systems.

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The Ladies Who Crunch are Hadassah Damien and Laura Boo. More information about us and this podcast can be found at ladieswhocrunch.club.

Please follow us on Instagram (@bottomlinestopdollars) and if you want to send us questions or episode ideas, email us at [e-mail].