$3.00, adjusted for inflation from 1890s amounts... would be $12.00.
Let's list the occupations of people who made $3.00/hr in 1890...
....let's see...
...well, according to
this source, a typical laborer made about $.15/hr, I would have to say....not many people. Hell, I don't think many executives or bosses made that much at that time.
So, if you really want to make a point, then make it using realistic figures. Since the
BLS website can only calculate back to 1913, using minimum wage at that time, according to
historical data, minimum wages were about $.25/hr. Adjusting for inflation, that makes the minimum wage in 1913 (in 2016 dollars) to be $6.10/hr.
So, minimum wage today is over-inflated compared to historical facts.
As to why people think increasing it is a good idea, back when the min. wage was introduced, it was intended to be the MINIMAL AMOUNT one would need to pay for essentials: A car, an apartment, utilities, groceries, insurance (health and auto), and still have enough to sock away for a rainy day over time. Unfortunately, it hasn't adjusted to meet inflation often and we're in the current boat now where people want a higher min. wage because they feel it's too low. They can't pay for all that stuff and still have enough to sock away. Heck, they're even considering themselves lucky if they earn enough to pay half of what they owe each month for the essentials, if that.
Back when minimum wage law was introduced, there wasn't a lot of ***available at that time (again, first laws were introduced in 1913). There weren't cars, many utilities, insurance was not necessary, nor any of the other niceties we have today. And as for your "it hasn't been adjusted to meet inflation" BS, I understand that you can't reason or look at historical data, but in reality, not only
has it been adjusted, but it's been
over-stated and exceeded inflation.
And there are lots of arguments that minimum wages (and their increases) have
caused inflation. Which is reasonable, when you increase costs of a product, you generally have to increase the selling price of said product.