evidence: Dean Baker, the center’s senior economist who crunched the numbers, said he is not suggesting that the minimum wage should be raised to that level, which would cause serious disruptions to the job market and economy. But he thinks it’s important to point out how the two diverged more than 50 years ago. [...] "No one thought we were crazy in the ’40s, ‘50s and ‘60s when we were having the minimum wage risein step with productivity," Baker said, noting the increases were bipartisan. "It’s a reasonable thing to say, society is getting richer, you have workers – custodians cleaning toilets and dishwashers – those people should share in it, as well." [...] That means minimum wage workers are getting poorer over time, said Josh Bivens, director of research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.