Suppose payroll taxes (Social Security, Medicare) did not kick in until a certain threshold of earnings, such as the poverty level. Workers earning less than that would get a 15% pay raise, assuming employers passed on their half of the savings, as most would. We could fund it by raising the Social Security cut-off level, currently $142,800. This effectively shifts the tax burden away from the lower class and onto the middle class, which has been happening for some time anyhow. (The wealthy do not pay much in taxes because we do not tax wealth, we mostly tax wages, and the wealthy generally do not have wages.)
Suppose payroll taxes (Social Security, Medicare) did not kick in until a certain threshold of earnings, such as the poverty level. Workers earning less than that would get a 15% pay raise, assuming employers passed on their half of the savings, as most would. We could fund it by raising the Social Security cut-off level, currently $142,800. This effectively shifts the tax burden away from the lower class and onto the middle class, which has been happening for some time anyhow. (The wealthy do not pay much in taxes because we do not tax wealth, we mostly tax wages, and the wealthy generally do not have wages.)