It shouldn’t shock readers here that people are struggling to just keep their heads above water, pay the bills and feed their families and themselves. Despite the attempt by the Administration to paint the economy as doing just fine, it’s getting nastier by the day for millions.

Check this out: our friends at the Economic Policy Institute tell us that some years back…

Raising the minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.15 in 1996-97 directly improved the wages of 9% of the workforce—almost 10 million workers—and indirectly raised the wages of millions more low-wage workers. Improvements in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and a new refundable Child Tax Credit also rewarded work and supplemented wages. After the minimum wage increase, the combination of full-time, year-round work and the above-mentioned federal tax credits resulted in a net income for a parent with two children equal to 105% of the poverty line in 1997.

But all that has broken down:

Nine years later, however, the system has broken down. The minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation and thus has lost 20% of its previous purchasing power. To exacerbate the problem, the EITC levels are linked to inflation, so for the last two years a person can work full-time, year-round at the minimum wage but still not be eligible for the maximum EITC. The combination of an out-of-date minimum wage and the existing federal tax credits mean that this same parent of two now only earns 89% of the poverty line.

If the minimum wage was pushed up from the pathetic 5.15 an hour to 7.25 an hour people earning that minimal wage would be at least what it was in 1997–even though it’s sad that so many more people are falling into minimum wage jobs.