# Pay the People! by John Driscoll, Morris Pearl, The Patriotic Millionaires - Blinkist What’s in it for me? Learn why fair wages make for a stronger economy. In 2015, Walmart faced a harsh reality – its low-wage strategy was backfiring. Yes, it kept labor cheap, but it also led to high employee turnover and growing complaints about poor customer service. Recognizing the need for change, Walmart decided to take a hard look at its approach, and it ended up revamping its entire business model. Rather than simply raising wages, it invested in comprehensive employee training and development, recognizing workers as valuable assets rather than just costs. The impact was profound: turnover rates dropped, customer satisfaction improved, and profits climbed. Walmart’s transformation proved that fair wages and workforce investment aren't just ethical choices – they're good business. Today, an unexpected group is advocating for a similar change across all industries: the Patriotic Millionaires. This coalition of successful business leaders and wealthy Americans warns that extreme income inequality poses a direct threat to the very system that enabled their prosperity in the first place. They argue that a thriving economy depends on ensuring fair wages for all workers, not just those at the top. In this Blink, you’ll explore America’s wage crisis and the solutions that successful companies have already started implementing to align fair pay with sustainable profitability. Whether you’re a business owner looking to foster long-term growth, or simply curious about the future of the American economy, the following sections provide a practical roadmap for building an economy that works for everyone. The Jenga economy In the classic Hasbro game Jenga, players carefully remove wooden blocks from the bottom of a tower and place them on top. With each move, the structure becomes increasingly unstable, inching closer to collapse until, inevitably, it all comes crashing down. For five decades, pieces of the U. S. economy have been steadily moved the same way – upwards – through policy changes, tax reforms, and wage suppression. And, you guessed it, the bottom is becoming increasingly unstable. The numbers tell a stark story: In 1973, the wealthiest 1% captured just 9% of the nation's income. By 2023, their share had nearly tripled to 26. 5%. This represents one of the most dramatic wealth transfers in American history. Since 1981, economists estimate that approximately $50 trillion has moved from the bottom 90% of earners to the top 1%;  a redistribution so massive it has fundamentally altered the American social contract. This transformation wasn't an accident. Through expensive lobbying campaigns and policy changes, politicians from both parties have consistently favored their donor class over working Americans. Tax reforms and wage suppression have steadily extracted wealth from the middle and lower economic levels, destabilizing the entire structure – just as removing too many blocks from Jenga's foundation threatens the whole tower. Among those who've recognized this dangerous imbalance are some unexpected voices – wealthy Americans themselves. Take the story of one Patriotic Millionaires member, a successful boat builder who married into money. When he saw his first post-marriage tax return, he was stunned to discover he now paid half the tax rate he did while crafting wooden hulls in the baking sun. This personal revelation exemplified the systemic inequities that would drive hundreds of wealthy Americans to action. In 2010, fifty-six high-net-worth individuals formed the Patriotic Millionaires, challenging the extension of the Bush tax cuts during Obama's lame-duck session. Today, their ranks include self-made entrepreneurs like Men's Wearhouse founder George Zimmer, inheritors of wealth like filmmaker Abigail Disney, and even innovators who've developed technology for Mars rovers. What unites them isn't charity or altruism – they just want a better country. They recognize that a society this unequal simply cannot endure. Their perspective challenges the prevailing narrative that what's good for the wealthy is good for America. Instead, they argue that the concentration of wealth has created a precarious economy where the majority of Americans struggle to maintain middle-class stability, ultimately threatening the foundation of democratic capitalism itself. Wages, profits, and prosperity During a routine earnings call in 2021, the Chief Financial Officer of Denny's Corporation accidentally let slip a truth that corporate America had long denied: higher minimum wages were actually good for business. The company's restaurants in California, where minimum wages had steadily risen, were outperforming their counterparts across the country. Higher wages meant more customers with more money to spend. The irony? The company continued lobbying against wage increases nationally. This disconnect between public posturing and private reality runs deep through American business culture. Consider the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, which aggressively opposes minimum wage increases. Yet they kept secret their own internal poll showing that 80% of member executives support raising state minimum wages. The truth only emerged through a leak, revealing how a small group of major donors shapes policy against the interests of millions of workers and thousands of businesses. The federal minimum wage has remained frozen at $7. 25 since 2009 – the longest period without an increase since its creation in 1938. When last raised, Barack Obama had just taken office, Modern Family was premiering its first season, and that $7. 25 had significantly more purchasing power. Today, accounting for inflation, it's equivalent to just $5. 12 in 2009 dollars. Wage decline is perhaps best illustrated through a simple metric: in 1968, an hour of minimum wage work could buy 3. 25 Big Macs; today, it barely covers one and a half. This stagnation represents a profound shift from historical trends. Between 1948 and 1973, productivity and wages rose in tandem – as workers produced more value, they were compensated accordingly. But in the decades since, even as productivity continued climbing, wages have flatlined. If the minimum wage had kept pace with both inflation and productivity gains since 1968, it would approach $26 today. Yet the impact extends beyond minimum wage workers themselves. Like ripples in a pond, wage increases spread upward through the workforce. For example, when a store manager making $15 an hour suddenly sees their subordinates earning the same amount, they typically receive a corresponding raise. Research thus shows that minimum wage increases indirect raise wages for millions of other workers too. This dynamic reveals a fundamental truth about the American economy: it grows from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down. With 70% of economic activity driven by consumer spending, the health of the economy depends on having customers with money to spend. The reality is that America's economy is running a race with a broken foot. By keeping wages so low that over a third of workers can barely participate in the consumer economy, we're artificially suppressing demand and limiting growth. Evidence from states with higher minimum wages consistently shows that raising the wage floor lifts the entire economy. It's time to acknowledge what business leaders privately know but publicly deny: a living wage is good for everyone. Minimum wage myths The Delaware River separates more than just two states – it divides two entirely different economic realities for American workers. At Julie's Diner in Port Jervis, New York, servers earn $14. 20 an hour plus tips. At The Morning Grind just across the river in Pennsylvania, servers rely on $2. 83 plus tips. Same morning rush, same regulars crossing the bridge each way – but a world of difference in take-home pay. This stark contrast along the border illuminates a broader transformation in American low-wage work, where an invisible line can mean the difference between earning a fair wage or working for a fraction of the pay for the exact same labor. In 2014, New York raised its minimum wage while Pennsylvania kept the federal minimum. At the time, critics predicted an exodus of businesses across the border. Instead, the opposite occurred. A Federal Reserve study of identical border communities revealed that New York's leisure and hospitality workers saw their earnings increase by 50% over nine years, compared to just 10% for their Pennsylvania counterparts – translating to nearly $6,000 more per year. Most significantly, this wage increase didn't come at the cost of jobs; New York's employment growth matched or exceeded Pennsylvania's. The automation apocalypse that critics predicted has proven equally mythical. In 2010, industry lobbyists warned that, if wages increased, some kind of "Burger-Tron 3000" would replace fast-food workers. Yet studies show only a minimal 0. 5% decrease in automatable jobs for each dollar increase in minimum wage – and even this small effect is typically offset by job growth from increased consumer spending. The reality is that automation proceeds at its own pace, driven by technological advancement rather than wage levels. There’s an equally persistent myth that the people working minimum wage jobs are teenagers and students just starting off their working life. However, today, it's more likely to be a thirty-something parent struggling to support a family. Only 17% of minimum wage workers are teenagers, while over a third are forty or older, with a quarter supporting children. More troubling still, a Harvard study tracking 181,000 low-wage workers found that after years of work, 60% remained trapped in similar positions, challenging the notion of these jobs as stepping stones to better opportunities. Stealing in plain sight While security cameras track shoplifters stealing $14 billion annually, a bigger heist plays out in plain sight. Every year, employers quietly take $50 billion from their workers' paychecks. Wage theft is an issue playing out on a massive scale, affecting over 4. 5 million workers annually and pushing 300,000 below the poverty line. Yet unlike shoplifting, which can result in immediate arrest, wage theft often goes unnoticed and unpunished. The scope of this practice is particularly huge in the restaurant industry, where an astounding 84% of establishments have been caught skimming from their workers' wages. The methods are creative: misclassifying employees as independent contractors to avoid minimum wage requirements, pocketing servers' tips, or simply failing to pay for overtime hours. It's death by a thousand cuts – a few dollars missing from each paycheck, a lunch break that was never paid, tips that mysteriously vanish before payday. The enforcement system that’s supposed to catch wage theft seems designed to fail. With only 1,000 Department of Labor investigators attempting to oversee 150 million workers, less than 4% of stolen wages are ever recovered. Cases drag on for months or years, and even when workers win their claims, many never see the money they're owed. The message is clear: if you steal a television, you face arrest; if you steal millions in wages, you might face a strongly worded letter from the Department of Labor – eventually. A tale of two retailers By 2015, Walmart faced a critical crossroads: continue viewing employees as expenses to be reduced or start investing in them as valuable assets. The choice they made would go on to redefine the landscape of American retail. Under CEO Doug McMillon, Walmart chose transformation. They raised base wages from $7. 25 to $13 an hour, expanded full-time positions from 50% to 67% of their workforce, and invested heavily in employee development. The results were remarkable: 87% of workers now report loving their jobs. Internal promotion is common with 75% of managers rising from hourly positions. And the company's stock has outperformed the S&P 500 by over 50 points since 2015. The contrast with Amazon's trajectory couldn't be starker. Under a philosophy that views long-term workers as harbingers of "mediocrity," Amazon has created a workplace so grueling that it churns through its entire workforce annually, with a staggering 150% turnover rate costing $8 billion yearly. Most telling is an internal prediction that by 2024, the company will have exhausted the available labor pool in its U. S. markets – literally running out of people willing to work under its conditions. This tale of two retailers illuminates a broader crisis in American labor, one thrown into sharp relief during the COVID-19 pandemic. When society suddenly designated millions of low-wage workers as "essential," it exposed a profound contradiction: these supposedly low-skill jobs were actually crucial to our collective survival, even as we treat those performing them as disposable. The "Great Reshuffle" of 2021-2022, when a record 50. 5 million workers quit their jobs, wasn't about people refusing to work – it was about workers finally gaining enough leverage to demand dignity. Contrary to corporate narratives about labor shortages, the labor force participation rate actually rose during this period. Workers weren't leaving the workforce; they were fleeing toxic conditions, with 63% citing low pay and lack of advancement opportunities as their primary reasons for quitting. This rebellion against poor treatment revealed the fundamental power imbalance in American labor markets. How can a worker living paycheck-to-paycheck effectively negotiate with a billion-dollar corporation? Building a better wage system Despite the daunting challenge of America’s wage crisis, some solutions are already proving effective in thirteen states across the country. These states have adopted automatic wage indexing systems that adjust wages in line with inflation, ensuring that workers' earnings keep up with the rising cost of living. During the inflation surge of 2021-2022, while federal minimum wage workers saw their purchasing power decline, employees in these states received automatic raises, allowing them to stay financially afloat. This successful American experiment points toward an even more ambitious possibility, already proven overseas. In Australia, an independent panel annually analyzes economic data, from inflation rates to specific changes in rent, food, and basic expenses, to determine appropriate minimum wages. Their current minimum wage of $15. 63 USD reflects this systematic, data-driven approach – and their economy continues to thrive. Politics is removed from the equation; instead, decisions flow from careful analysis of what workers need to survive and what the economy can sustain. The tools for implementing such a system in America already exist. MIT's Living Wage Calculator provides detailed cost-of-living data for every county in the United States, offering a granular view of what workers need to survive in different regions. Rather than debating arbitrary numbers, we could tie minimum wages directly to these real-world costs. A worker in rural Montana and one in New York City might earn different wages, but both would be guaranteed enough to cover basic needs in their area. The political momentum for such changes is building. Even recent Republican minimum wage proposals include automatic indexing, acknowledging that regular adjustments make more sense than decades-long stalemates between lawmakers. Both parties increasingly recognize that removing wage decisions from the annual political circus benefits everyone - workers gain predictability, businesses can plan ahead, and politicians can focus on other issues. We don't need to reinvent the wheel or wait for perfect solutions. Between state-level successes, proven international models, and existing economic tools, we have all the elements needed to build a more rational and humane wage system. The path forward is clear: use data, not politics, to ensure every American worker earns enough to live with dignity. Final summary The main takeaway of this Blink to Pay The People! by John Driscoll, Morris Pearl, and The Patriotic Millionaires is that America's growing wealth inequality isn't just unfair – it's bad for business. Like a Jenga tower with too many blocks moved to the top, America’s economy has become dangerously unbalanced. Through policy changes and wage suppression, trillions have shifted from working Americans to the top 1%. But evidence from state-level minimum wage increases shows that better wages don't kill jobs – they create customers. The message is clear: a strong middle class isn't just good for workers; it's essential for a sustainable economy. Okay, that's it for this Blink. We hope you enjoyed it. If you can, please take the time to leave us a rating – we always appreciate your feedback. See you in the next Blink.