Essay On Minimum Wage

Minimum wage has caused controversy throughout history between the two parties in government, the Democrats and Republicans, debating if they should increase minimum wage or not. Minimum wage was first established during 1938 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Sessions). The first act to enforce employers to pay its employees is the Fair Labor Standards Act which followed the Social Security Act (Sessions). Minimum wage started as twenty-five (25) cents per hour which doesn’t seem like a lot, but it was at that time (Sessions). The United States tended to raise the minimum wage when the standard of living changed. Since 1938, two other amendments were created to increase minimum wage laws even more. By 1961, minimum wage raised to $1.15 with another increase in 1963 (wages). Since the 1963 wage change, minimum wage created a trend of increasing yearly or every other year (Wages). From 2007 to 2009 minimum wage increased each year making the current minimum wage $7.25 (wages). Sine minimum wage has been established, Congress has increased minimum wage twenty-two times (22) (). Since minimum wage is supposed to change when the standard of living changes, then why hasn’t the United States government changed it since 2009?

One of the most talked about subjects in the U.S economy is the topic of minimum wage. What is it? Why people talk so much about it? Why should you care about that topic or even pay attention to that? This paper will try to answer the question of why increasing a minimum wage is a good or not so good idea.

In the United States people have the opportunity to choose what job they want to work at, its take time and effort also dedication to get a high paying job. Some jobs in the U.S do not require much time and effort to work but the pay is not the best. In recent news there has been lots of attention regarding pay for fast food workers. Most employees that work at fast food restaurants get paid minimum wage which is an average of $8.00 an hour depending on which state you live in. Most states minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and in a few states minimum wage goes up to $9.32 an hour. In the 2014 State of the Union address President Obama asked Congress to raise the minimum wages for individuals working on federal services contracts to 10.10 an hour.

The debate over minimum wage increases has been a major political issue for decades. Some believe that a higher minimum wage will put more money into the economy and pockets of the lower classes. However; opponents believe that a minimum wage increase would do more harm than good. The Washington Post has published several articles on the issue, one of which being: “$15 is the Wrong Goal for Wage Warriors”, which doesn’t have a specific author; because it is a collaborative piece from the editorial board itself. The Wall Street Journal has also published an opposing article: “The Evidence Is Piling up That Higher Minimum Wages Kill Jobs”, written by David Neumark. The Editorial Boards main point of view is that the federal minimum wage should sustainably be increased, while David Neumark believes that a higher minimum wage would harm those whom the increase is meant to help; the unskilled. The Editorial Board’s

"No family gets rich from earning the minimum wage. In fact, the current minimum wage does not even lift a family out of poverty."

Minimum wage is the lowest wage permitted by law or special agreement. This is the lowest amount of money to be paid in accordance to law. In US, the first federal minimum wage was introduced by Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of Fair Labor Standard Act in 1938 and it all started with $0.25/hr(about $4 in today's value). Since then, there have been many debates over raising the federal minimum wage and so far it has been raised 22 times. As of 2015, the federal minimum wage is $7.25/hr. Even though there is federal minimum wage law, only 20 states follow it including Texas and the rest of them have their own minimum wage laws. Therefore, there are list out there of the pros and cons of raising the minimum wage and the current debate.

When was the last time the federal minimum wage rose within the United States? The U.S. Department of Labor has not risen the federal minimum wage since 2009 when it was set to $7.25, even with the fast paced, current day economy. (Ingraham, "The U.S. Has One of the Stingiest Minimum Wage Policies of Any..." 1) Among the world’s wealthiest nations, the United States contends to be an outlier on this issue: Americans have the lowest national minimum wage, relative to the median wage, of any of the wealthy nations represented in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In the United States, by contrast, the federal minimum wage works out to just 35 percent of the national median wage, the lowest in the OECD. (Ingraham, "The U.S. Has One of the Stingiest Minimum Wage Policies of Any..." 2) There has been a long debate on the issue of whether or not to raise the minimum wage of the United States. The federal minimum wage within the United States should gradually

In public discussion, the minimum wage is a frequent topic debated by policymakers; in the recent presidential campaign, candidate Bernie Sanders even made a $15.00 an hour minimum wage part of his platform. According to Adam Smith’s theory of economics, the invisible hand of market forces, or bargaining between employers and employees, should lead to a fair wage (Ryan 3). However, a significant amount of evidence points shows that market forces are not enough for some to sustain the cost of living. The minimum wage is shown to improve overall standard of living, mitigate economic inequality, and has few negative externalities, despite the arguments of those against the minimum wage such as job loss, loss of profit, and trust in market forces. The minimum wage is necessary, and the most efficient wage policy keeps a person out of poverty, adjusts for cost of living, and is as location-specific as possible.

The topic of whether the minimum wage should be increased or untouched has been a hot topic in the political life lately. The federal minimum wage was first introduced in 1938 at .25 cents an hour by the Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to reduce underpaid workers and increase families under the poverty line. President Obama addressed Congress with the rise of fifteen dollars an hour as the federal minimum wage, but it was never passed or put into law. Due to this address, the controversy has risen to an all-time high. The advocacy or this issue has risen, and government administration is stuck not knowing how to solve the issue. The positives and negative hold each other hand in hand causing a great dilemma. Raising minimum wage creates the question of whether or not it could help poverty dissipate, and in reality,

Minimum wages go all the way back to 1938, during the great depression, when the stock market crash and bank loan were failing. Families need income of some type, were they wanted to make it fair were individual could get pay the same without a college degree. I am going to start off with a little about minimum wages history and how this could help our Economic.

Minimum wage is something that is so hard to decide on because it affects different citizens in different ways based on how much they make. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the man who introduced minimum wage by creating a law called Fair Labor Standard Act of 1938 which was intended to increase the standard living of lower class workers. According to Minimum Wages by Linda Gorman, minimum wage laws set legal minimums for the hourly wages paid to certain groups of workers. As of right now, the federal minimum wage in the United States is $7.25 per hour, but state minimum wage is different based on their laws. For example, Nevada’s sate minimum wage is $8.25 per hour and California’s is two dollars higher sitting at a whopping $10 per hour. This has been a controversy that has been troubling everyone. We always find ourselves watching politicians argue with politicians, as well citizens arguing with other citizens, on what should be the minimum wage that would benefit the economy and our society we live in. Though these factors are not the only things we need to have in mind, we need to think about whether raising the minimum wage is something that we need to do, or what is going to be impacted by raising minimum wage. These questions have had many researchers beyond interested, figuring out what will change before it happens could lead us to prevent bad things from happening. There are several things that researchers have realized would be impacted by

During the course of providing HACCP training certification classes, we hear many MN certified food managers discussing how a rising minimum wage may impact their businesses. This is a hotly debated issue, especially in light of recent attempts to place a 15 dollar minimum wage initiative on the upcoming November ballot in the city of Minneapolis. Recently, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that a minimum wage increase cannot be legally raised by the voters, but must be established by the city council. Even so, since the food service industry hires a high-number of minimum wage workers, we felt it beneficial to briefly explore the issue.

It is currently hot topic with the upcoming presidential elections. It is also a very important topic in economics because of how it could hurt or help our ever fragile economy. It is also topic that can get very personal for people. The topic is minimum wage. I believe that increasing minimum wage would increase the worker’s quality of life, decrease tax payer’s money spent on public assistance programs, put more money back into our economy and lower the turnover rate for the effected jobs.

    Many Americans work relentlessly day in and day out to make ends meet on a minimum wage. It is difficult for minimum wage workers to live a decent life with an increasing cost of living and stagnation of salary . The current minimum wage can pay for little over 3 gallons of gas which shows that the current minimum wage supplies less than minimum to live a decent life. The minimum wage should be increased because a low minimum wage is directed to support the richest Americans, the government gives welfare to minimum wage employees, and a high wage could stimulate economic growth.

There are many disadvantages when it comes to minimum wage that effects everyone in different ways. Minimum wage is the lowest commission that employers can pay their workers legally. Which causes a lot of different families with one income homes to struggle based off the income that they are bringing in and for those that make a higher income than minimum wage risk having to spend more money for normal life necessities