MAGA voters and Democrats alike know workers need $25 an hour. Acting on that consensus is how we save American families.
By Ben Jealous
The old blues singer had it right: “When a lady gets the blues, she hangs her head and cries. When a man gets the blues, he grabs the train and rides.” The relationship between poverty and family breakdown has always been undeniable.
For decades, conservatives have rightly sounded the alarm about family breakdown — declining marriage rates, rising single parenthood, children without stable households. Strong families are the foundation of strong communities. But here’s what we need to be honest about: You cannot build strong families on poverty wages.
The past year has made this undeniable. Grocery prices remain high. Rent keeps climbing. Childcare costs are crushing families. MIT’s Living Wage Calculator shows even the cheapest county in America now requires $33.82 per hour for a modest two-parent household to cover basics. Against a $7.25 federal minimum wage, families are drowning.
Here’s what America literally cannot afford to forget: This year, videos went viral across MAGA social media claiming Donald Trump would raise the minimum wage to $25 an hour. The videos were false — Trump never made that promise. But their popularity revealed something crucial: even Trump’s base knows the current wage system is broken. When working-class Americans across the political spectrum are that hungry for higher wages, it’s time we stopped treating this as partisan and started treating it as a family crisis.
So let’s imagine the President of the United States was actually willing to establish a family-sustaining wage. What would happen?
Marriages would increase. Geoffrey McAdam in Indiana works full-time earning just under $47,000 a year and can’t afford independent housing, much less support a family. Research shows when male wages decline, marriage rates plummet — not because values changed, but because men like Geoffrey don’t feel they can fulfill the provider role. Financial stress is the number one cause of divorce. With family-sustaining wages, couples could weather emergencies instead of one car repair destroying their marriage.
Fathers could be present. Men working multiple jobs miss Little League games, homework help, dinner conversations. Men like Geoffrey who can’t afford housing delay fatherhood altogether. When fathers earn family-sustaining wages, they can work one job and actually be there.
Children would thrive. When parents aren’t working 60-80 hours just to survive, they’re home. Research shows minimum wage increases improve children’s health outcomes, educational achievement, and emotional wellbeing. Child neglect reports drop — not because parents suddenly improve, but because they have resources and capacity to care properly.
Mothers could actually mother. Anneliese Jackson works in an Elgin restaurant earning $9 an hour after eight years, alongside single mothers who miss their children’s childhoods working exhausting shifts. With $30 an hour in Chicago, those mothers could work one job, be home for dinner, help with homework. The impossible childcare math — $10,000-$15,000 per year per child versus $15,080 annual earnings at $7.25/hour — would finally work.
Communities would strengthen. When workers have money in their pockets, they spend it locally. Church attendance increases when parents have Sundays off. Volunteer rates rise. Little League teams get coaches.
Taxpayers would save $65 billion annually. Right now we subsidize corporate payrolls through food stamps, Medicaid, housing assistance. That’s corporate welfare. A $25 federal minimum wage, phased in gradually, would reduce government dependency dramatically.
Workers would regain dignity. Luisa Powell worked Kentucky restaurants nearly a decade at $2.13 an hour, often not even reaching minimum wage with tips. She didn’t know her employer was required to make up the difference.
The Math Is Simple
If the minimum wage had kept pace with both inflation and increases in corporate productivity since 1968, it would be $25 today. Workers haven’t gotten less productive — corporations have gotten vastly more profitable while wages stagnated. And with AI poised to drive corporate productivity dramatically higher over the next five years, that gap will only widen unless we act now.
The minimum wage used to be a family wage. One earner could support a household, buy a modest home, raise children. That was America working as designed.
The Path Forward
Polling shows 55% of voters in swing congressional districts support $25 minimum wage. In Chicago, 70% support $30. This crosses party lines because the struggle crosses party lines.
The Living Wage for All coalition is proposing a family-sustaining wage phased in over several years to give businesses time to adjust — with large corporations reaching $25-$30 faster and additional time for small businesses. The proposal includes training, technical assistance, and grants, loans, and tax credits to help small businesses make the transition. End all subminimum wages, including the subminimum wage for tipped workers, still just $2.13.
Those viral MAGA videos weren’t really about Trump. They were about working families desperate for wages that actually support family life. Geoffrey McAdam put it bluntly: while “corrupt elected officials, lobbyists, and corporate suits get to line their pockets, those not in high positions of power continue to suffer.” He’s right that both Democrat and Republican leaders have failed working families on this issue.
But what’s clear is that voters in both parties are eager for their leaders to do better. The question is whether we’ll finally listen.
Ben Jealous is former president and CEO of the NAACP and professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania.
