The federal minimum wage has been $7.25/hour since 2009 — the longest period without an increase since the wage was first established. This video, featuring economist Robert Reich, argues that this stagnation has left the minimum wage well below what’s needed to cover basic living costs, and calculates that it would be roughly $24/hour today had it kept pace with productivity growth since 1968. The video argues for raising it to at least $15/hour.
Reich addresses four common objections to raising the minimum wage — job losses, small-business affordability, inflation, and the assumption that most minimum-wage earners are teenagers — and argues each is overstated, citing research he says shows minimum wage increases don’t reduce employment and can improve retention and productivity. He also cites an estimate that low wages cost taxpayers roughly $107 billion annually in social safety net spending that effectively subsidizes employers.
Note: whether minimum wage increases reduce employment is a genuinely disputed question in economics, with real research on multiple sides — this video presents one side of that debate, not a settled consensus.