Minimum wage would be $44 today if it grew at same pace as Wall Street bonuses

The disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street has perhaps never been more glaring in the past year, when the stock market hit new records even as tens of millions of people lost their jobs due to the pandemic. But it's part of a longer-term trend, with Wall Street bonuses surging 1,217% since 1985, or about 10 times the pace for minimum wage workers during the same stretch.

If the federal minimum wage had kept up with the same growth as Wall Street bonuses, the baseline rate would be $44, according to a new analysis from the Institute for Policy Studies, a left-leaning think tank that examines income and pay inequality. The baseline wage has been stuck at $7.25 an hour for more than 11 years, the longest period it's gone without an increase since it began in 1938. The typical bonus for a Wall Street employee jumped 10% last year to $184,000, the New York State Comptroller said on Friday, which served as the basis for the IPS' analysis. While there's been a push to increase the federal minimum wage, progress has so far proved elusive. The Biden administration's goal of including a $15 baseline wage in the American Rescue Plan was abandoned partly after resistance from some lawmakers and business groups.