USD/BTC =$82,704
Block 890,120
TL:DRTakeaways
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President Trump has rescinded President Biden’s 2021 executive order increasing the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors. -
The minimum wage is now $13.30 per hourfor federal contractors covered by President Obama’s 2014 executive order, which remains in effect. -
Trump’s action does not formally revoke a Department of Labor rule implementing Biden’s wage mandate. However, there is no longer a basis for enforcing the rule.
History of EOs
EO 14026, issued by Biden in 2021, sharply increased the minimum wage rate in effect for federal contractors and set annual adjustments to account for inflation.
The rate in effect for 2025 was $17.75 per hour.With the Biden EO rescinded, the minimum wage rate is $13.30 per hour for contractors covered by EO 13658, President Barack Obama’s 2014 EO. EO 13658 was the first executive action imposing a minimum wage for federal contractors higher than the standard federal minimum.During his first term, Trump left EO 13658 intact,
but he issued EO 13838 in 2018 to exclude from coverage certain outdoor recreational businesses operating on federal lands. Biden’s EO expressly eliminated this carve-out, which sparked one of several ongoing legal challenges to the Biden EO. (See Tenth Circuit Upholds Court’s Refusal to Enjoin Federal Contractor Minimum Wage Hike.)Rescinding EO 14026 effectively restores the exclusion for
recreational services contractors, so the standard federal minimum wage rate ($7.25 per hour) `applies to these businesses.[….]
My Thoughts 💭
Let’s have a fun thought experiment. Let’s say some 16 year old teen wants to own a Stacker News Territory and the only Job he can get is one that pays federal minimum wage. Three different Presidential Administrations has meddled with the federal minimum wage. We will start with the lowest and work our way up in terms of sats
1. The $7.25 rate is good for 8,768 sats.
At this rate the 16 year old stacker will have to work this long (ignoring taxes and other expenses)
- At 100,000 sats per month is 11.4 hours of work
- At 1M sats per year 114.0 hours of work
- At 3M sats forever 342.1 hours of work
2. The $13.30 rate is good for 16,075 sats.
- At 100,000 sats per month is 6.2 hours of work
- At 1M sats per year 62.2 hours of work
- At 3M sats forever 186.6 hours of work
3. The $17.75 rate is good for 21,450 sats.
- At 100,000 sats per month is 4.6 hours of work
- At 1M sats per year 46.6 hours of work
- At 3M sats forever 139.8 hours of work
With hard work and diligently saving a teen can work enough to support owning a territory. If they are working part time it can be a bit burdensome but it is obtainable.
I put this post in Econ because I have conflicting thoughts about minimum wage. On one hand I can understand why it makes goods and services more expensive but the counter argument is that wealth will concentrate with the highest earners and owners of the products thus the labor doesn’t get access to the spoils. With my thought experiment above because a minimum wage is indeed in place they have an opportunity to participate in the stacker news economy in a reasonable amount of time. 100,000 sats per month is obtainable on a part time job. But if America didn’t have these laws in place and our 16 year old can only earn $2 or $3 an hour well he is effectively being priced out of the stacker news economy. Which isn’t good or bad but just is.
Lastly I wish presidents stop meddling with this rate. The uncertainty of labor costs does indeed harm productivity.
What do the Econ stackers think?