Minimum Wage

To begin, there is an extensive debate over whether if the U.S were to raise minimum wage, could it really help the working poor of low income families. Nancy Cook, in her article from the National Journal, “Why a Minimum-Wage Hike Can’t Help the Poor”, she points out that two thirds of around 100 surveys from 2007 had a negative effect and that it does more for the middle class than the lower one. (p.14). So, therefore, from her

than $5.15 an hour. Overtime pay at a rate of not less than one and

The Fair Labor Standards Act was first introduced and passed on June 25, 1938 and became effective on October 24, 1938 within that bill minimum wage was first introduced (Grossman). The bill itself was an issue because the supreme court kept turning down the bill but after countless attempts, the bill was passed a year later. President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced that bill in hopes for fair pay as he states “all our able-bodied working men and women a fair day's pay for a fair day's work” (Roosevelt). President Roosevelt basically wanted to end the injustice and inequality many workers faced when receiving payment. Minimum wage has been and is currently an issue because of the augmentation on the cost of living and low income many workers

The first federal minimum wage mandated by the government was in 1938. When the first minimum wage became law in 1938, it was set at just 25 cents. Today, the federal minimum wage mandated by the government is set at $7.25 an hour. “Many states have their own set minimum wages, which are currently above $7.25 per hour already. Currently, 29 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.) have minimum wages above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. D.C. 's new wage of $10.50 an hour makes it the first jurisdiction to cross the $10 threshold among the states,” (Halvorson). The last time that the federal minimum wage mandated by the government was changed was over 8 years ago. “The last time Congress voted to raise the minimum wage to its current rate of $7.25 an hour was on May 24, 2007. Since then, the cost of life 's essentials has shot up. Groceries cost 20% more, a gallon of gas costs 25% more, and average tuition at a community college increased 44%. But the minimum wage remains at

More specifically, only about twenty-three percent of minimum wage workers live in poverty (Economics 21, screen 1). Many of the people working minimum wages are astonishingly young; a little over half are between the ages 16 to 24 (Desilver, screen 1). To make another point, sixty-four percent of those working minimum wage only work part-time (Desilver, screen 1). With this information it is easy to see that most of the minimum wage workers are young and working for experience or to start paying for their own things.

The minimum wage was established in the United States by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 at 25 cents per hour. These laws are broadly supported by the public. Congress enacted these rules to combat “labor conditions detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and the general well-being of the workers” (Sharp, 2013 p. 71). The purpose and intent of

In 1938, the first national minimum wage laws in the United States were passed as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which served as “a floor below wages,” to reduce poverty and to ensure that economic growth is shared across the workforce. Today, many people who work for companies that pay at or near the minimum wage and remain near or below the poverty level rely on government health and food security and income programs to supplement their living expenses. Since 1938, there have been many additional policies to the Fair Labor Standards Act that have changed many things, such as increasing the national minimum wage numerous times to the currently salary level, which was set in 1997. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 was a policy to change the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 in three additions, which began in July of 2009. (http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/posters/minwagebwp.pdf)

In the United States, the minimum wage was passed during the Great Depression in 1938 to protect the buying power of normal workers in a period in which the “unemployment rate was still a very high 19 percent” (Sklar, 2009, p. 1). Since that time, there has been significant debate about the controversial topic of raising the federal minimum wage. The federal minimum wage law was created to eliminate unfair practices of sweat shops and manufacturing companies during this time period. Thus, the minimum wage is defined as the smallest salary that an employer is legally allowed to pay employees for their work. Since the time of the Great Depression, minimum wage has been utilized to guarantee that employees are paid

In the United States alone, the amount of people in poverty is 14.5%. That equates to 45.3 million people in 2013. In a country like America, one of the world’s superpowers, it’s embarrassing to admit. But the main issue is to fix issues like these with the minimum wage and welfare. The minimum wage applies to workers who got a job whether because they were in school or because they had not gone to college and had no other option. Most of the country lives off as minimum wage workers as only 1% of the world’s population has a college degree. Minimum wage needs to be adjusted to modern inflation. But the minimum wage allegedly does not affect poverty at all says a large demographic and does not need to be adjusted. The minimum wage makes up a lot of the country and should be adjusted or modified to today’s standard of living.

The federal government issued the fair  labor standards act. This act made it so all employers were required by law to pay their workers a minimum pay of $0.25 at that time. Minimum wage was also made to help the people as stated in the article, “Purpose of minimum wage”.Written by the labor law center, the minimum wage payment would be enough for an employe to afford basic needs of living. It was said that minimum not only prevents poverty but overcomes it. Each  state has their own minimum wage but it can’t be lower than  the national minimum wage of $7.25. States have their own minimum wage because not all states have the same cost of living. So minimum wage was created in  1938 as a way to overcome poverty, provide enough money for basic needs and be a fair amount of pay for employees throughout

Even with the hike of minimum wage to $7.25, workers were still $3,000 under the poverty level. An average family of four would be $6,000 under the poverty line. There is a popular belief that most minimum wage workers are teenagers. The truth is that 79% of minimum wage workers are 20 or older.

In 1938, the first national minimum wage laws in the United States were passed as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which served as “a floor below wages,” to reduce poverty and to ensure that economic growth is shared across the workforce. Today, many people who work for companies that pay at or near the minimum wage and remain near or below the poverty level rely on government health and food security and income programs to supplement their living expenses. Since 1938, there have been many additional policies to the Fair Labor Standards Act that have changed many things, such as increasing the national minimum wage numerous times to the currently salary level, which was set in 1997. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, from the United States Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, was a policy to change the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 in three additions, which began in July of 2009. (U.S., 2009).

Low minimum wages affects everyday families and lives, more than the average person would think. A small minimum wage could have an very small effect on someone’s life, such as not being able to afford a new pair of boots or that new phone, contradictory to this low wages could also have a very serious effect on someone’s life . Meaning that a parent or single individual could not support their family because a lack of income, it could also mean the difference of living under a safe roof, or living in the streets. In 2016 alone, 40.6 million people in the United States

Minimum wage introduced by the congress as the subdivision of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in 1938. At that time, congress set the minimum wage at 25 cents an hour. According to Tricia Hussung, Business Analyst, in 1968, adjusted for inflation, the federal minimum wage

Even though, the average wage of a worker in a low-income family is lower compared to the average wage in a high-income family, the correlation between being a low-wage worker and being in a low-income family is quite weak. David Neumark states three reasons for this. First, based on 2014 data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a majority (57%) of poor families with heads of household ages 18–64 have no workers. Second, some workers are poor because of low hours and not low wages; for example, 46% of poor workers have hourly wages above $10.10, and 36% have hourly wages above $12 (from CPS data). These workers would not be directly impacted by a minimum wage increase if we discount the consideration that minimum wage increase would spill