If you want to know what it's like to be a member of the more than three million-strong work force that makes minimum wage in the U.S., now you can: meet the Minimum Wage Machine.
Ostensibly a penny dispenser, the machine attempts to simulate the banal, menial tasks that minimum wage earners encounter on a daily basis (which, according to a 2014 Pew study, usually fall into the retail and food services industries). When a participant turns a metal crank, a penny comes out every 4.5 seconds. After an hour, a participant has amassed exactly $8 — the minimum wage for the state of New York before the federal raise that occurred in early January of this year. The machine can also be adjusted to match the minimum wage of any U.S. state where it is exhibited.
Fittingly, the Minimum Wage Machine is designed by artist Blake Fall-Conroy, who states on his website that he creates his projects to be "socially conscious" and is "more interested in communicating ideas and less interested in making art."
Despite the aforementioned federal raise in the wage, which 29 other states were also a part of, the actual federal minimum is a scant $7.25; the federal minimum notwithstanding, on a state level (or even on a territory level, in the case of places like Samoa), it gets a bit tricky. A few examples: U.S. territories are exempt from a minimum wage requirement, and in places like Georgia, non-federal Fair Labor Standards Act employees are subject to the state minimum wage, which is $5.15.
Via Fast Coexist
