As Americans struggle to afford groceries and get priced out of cities across the country, Republicans are still advocating against increasing the minimum wage.
Back in June, Pennsylvania House minority leader Jesse Topper, a Republican, gave remarks against a bill that would increase the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour for most. That would boost hourly workers' wages to over double where they currently sit at $7.25.
By the way, minimum wage in Pennsylvania has remained at the federal level, which hasn't increased at all since 2009.
"Not every wage is designed — and please hear me clearly on this," Topper says.
"Not every wage is designed to be a livable wage."
He goes on to give examples of his point, like a teenager or a retired person working for income they don't technically need to survive.
You can watch Topper's full remarks on his Facebook page. The clip was posted to r/Fauxmoi, where it racked up over 2,000 upvotes and 270 comments (and counting).
"So some jobs are supposed to be a hobby then?" this person asked.
Someone else suggested giving Topper "one of those not designed to be livable wages."
"You can't say a job is essential and then turn around and say the person doing it doesn't deserve to live off it," one user wrote.
This person simply wrote, "Fuck this."
Someone said that the people working for minimum wage "do more work in a week than these people do in an entire year."
"The audacity of this man to say this, when those same people not making a livable wage are literally paying his salary with their tax dollars," this person wrote. "Despicable humans."
One user said that service jobs like those at fast food joints sometimes go to kids who don't "need" the money, but that lots of those jobs are occupied by people who really do.
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"So pro life," someone joked.
And finally, this person pointed out that the mere existence of the phrase "livable wage" is troubling in itself.
So, what do you think? Sound off in the comments.
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