Thune Accidentally Makes Case for Hiking Minimum Wage

Sen. John Thune (R-SD) announced his opposition to raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by tweeting a personal story:

I started working by busing tables at the Star Family Restaurant for $1 an hour and slowly moved up to cook — the big leagues for a kid like me — to earn $6/hour.

Businesses in small towns survive on narrow margins. Mandating a $15 minimum wage would put many of them out of business.

Of course, as Newsweek points out, Thune’s $6 an hour wage adjusted for inflation would be $24 an hour today.