In this Friday’s editorial, the New York Times notes that the increase in the minimum wage is not sufficient, and that jobs of tomorrow will not support a middle class lifestyle:

The minimum wage also sets a floor by which other wages are set. Keeping it low keeps wages lower than they would be otherwise, especially for jobs that are just above the minimum-wage level. That’s a big problem for American workers because low-wage fields are the ones that are adding the most jobs.

According to the Labor Department, 5 of the 10 occupations expected to add the most jobs through 2016 are “very low paying,” up to a maximum of about $22,000 a year. They include retail sales jobs and home health aides. Another 3 of the 10 are “low paying,” from roughly $22,000 to $31,000, including customer-service representatives, general office clerks and nurses’ aides.

(emphasis mine)

We have created Alan Greenspan’s Randroid paradise here, where a living wage is only for the capitalists who make their money off of other people’s money.

For the other 80% of the population, we have a life of debt servitude and peonage.

H/T uggabugga.