Minimum Wage Is Necessary For A Basic Quality Of Life

“The minimum wage is the minimum hourly wage an employer can pay an employee for work. Currently, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour (part of the Fair Labor Standards Act) and some states and cities have raised their minimum wage even higher than that.” minimum wage was first introduced during the great depression in 1930s. Before it was introduced thousands of people were forced to work in horrible conditions for pennies a week. Early attempts on minimum wage was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S supreme court, because it restricted people from deciding what they wanted to pay their workers. So employers still made there workers, work in horrible condition through the great depression. Now that poverty is a huge national issue. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made sure he would protect workers it was part of his mission as the president of the united states of america. After being reelected in 1936 he signed the FLSA in 1938. Which put into place a national minimum wage of 25 cents an hour. After the law was passed the minimum wage was changed almost every couple of years because the cost of living is very high. In 1997 bill clinton allowed states to make there own minimum wage. Today the minimum wage is 7.25/hour there is continuing debate over whether that 's a fair amount of money to support someone there days. Labor activists want the government to raise it while other point out the negative effects it would have on the

The argument for minimum wage has remained remake consistent over the years. Some people are against minimum wage and the other think minimum wage can help you in a certain way. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Unites States federal government passed the Fair Labor Standards Act. The law has been amended almost every year to expand coverage of the wage floor and to increase the wage itself. Many of the fifty states have enacted their own minimum wage laws, some of them set even higher than the federal level. Minimum wage jobs don’t only help adults at hard times it help teenagers and college students. I learned that the proponents for minimum wage believe the raw value of one’s labor to a business

In today’s economics minimum wage is used as a price control or price floor that the government enforces. A price floor is a minimum price for a product or service above the market’s equilibrium price. Selling any product or service sold below the price floor is considered illegal. Since the price of a commodity or service is increased the demand will go down lower than the quantity supplied creating a surplus. This theory also creates a surplus in employment. When minimum wage is increased or a price floor is set there will be a surplus of employees and the demand for workers will decrease. Well in order to accurately determine whether the minimum wage employees are receiving is enough to maintain a minimal lifestyle, we must first understand how the minimum wage is calculated. According to the United States Department of Labor, “federal minimum wage for covered nonexempt employees is $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009. The federal minimum wage provisions are contained in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).” The Fair Labor Standards Act is a set of standards pertaining to youth employment, overtime pay, and other laws that affect employees within private and public

The current federal minimum wage is too low to allow people to earn a living wage and has failed to keep up with increases in inflation, productivity and economic growth in recent years. Wages have been fixed at $7.25 an hour since 2009, resulting in a 40 hour work week that allows one to earn only $15,000 a year, an amount that lies just barely above the poverty line (13). If the worker is responsible for children and works full-time to earn this amount, they drop below the poverty line. These low

Although many Americans are aware that our country suffers severely in the category of poverty, minimum wage is not factor that many turn to think as a fault. They claim to know about minimum wage; however, it is merely a blank claim because they have neither experienced the hardship under a cap of expenses nor does the issue affect them. In fact, this issue is detrimental to our country as we are slowly falling into unemployment and homelessness. In Barbara Ehrenreich’s book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, she states that minimum wage had fallen back comparing to the living cost in the 1900s; however, this statement is still true today. Enrenreich is a reliable reporter who travels to three different cities with contrasting backgrounds. She tried to experience the life of a minimum wage worker in order to accurately report the inside scoop of a life that most Americans do not know to exist. As a supporter of her claim after realizing the way our country has been living, I too believe that minimum wage does not fulfill its purpose and should be raised, as it does not serve enough to cover even the essential expenses.

Minimum wage is the lowest amount of pay that employers can legally pay their workers. Minimum wage in the United States, is set at $7.25, the federal government takes out up to 12 percent of the whole payment for taxes. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) are the ones who have set the minimum wage from 1938 to the current year, 2017. The FLSA is a law that sets various labor regulations that includes interstate commerce employment, requirements for overtime pay, and the limits on child labor. Some argue that teenagers and low paying workers should be paid more than $7.25 dollars an hour, while others argue that they should suck it up and be thankful for what are paid. Researchers have stated that high minimum wage increases have helped bring the poverty level down in the United States. Other researchers have said that the level of minimum wage has little to no effect on the poverty level. Minimum wage is a happy medium that a company or organization sets for an employee; they use this as a starting point for an employee to receive raises and bonuses. Minimum wage is thought out to be by some a terrible thing because it is the reason our poverty levels are down, but with the minimum wage it has helped with economic growth.

Minimum wage affects many people and by understanding its evolvement throughout the years we can better understand how our government can better provide for those working minimum wage jobs today. Inequality is an inevitable factor in a capitalist market, people need proper incentives to work hard and be productive, and the incentive of more money or more opportunity is the driving force of capitalism and even the American dream. However there are several current complications that even those who are actively employed are living under the poverty line, like stated previously minimum wage from when it was first implemented raised along with inflation but then began to lose momentum in the 1970s and since then it began to stagnate and then drop along with increased inflation; if minimum wage were to be raise to $10.10 to become congruent with inflation it would bring 4 million people above the poverty line. Congress instituted the minimum wage in 1938 as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The first minimum wage stood at 25 cents an hour. The last minimum wage increase occurred in 2007, when Congress raised the rate in steps from $5.15 an hour that year to $7.25 an hour in July 2009. The District of Columbia and 19 states have also established local minimum wages higher than the federal rate. The highest state minimum wage in the country occurs in Washington State at $9.32 an hour, however

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 14% of the nation lives below the poverty line, the current population is 326,474,013, and 45,706,362 of the population lives in poverty every single day. One of the reasons why such a large chunk of the population is in poverty is because they are not being paid a reasonable salary for them to support themselves and their families. Raising the minimum wage can lead to problems, but gradual increases are made over time, it could be beneficial for millions of people around the nation. The positive effects of raising minimum wage is what makes it worth it. A raise in minimum wage can be beneficial; however, it must be a

Taking a look at the problems facing Americans and how they live may have sprung up from the fact that the federal minimum wage is too low to support anyone, minimum wage is the lowest possible wage permitted by law or by a special agreement. In America, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour for an employer to pay their employees. Not enough to sustain a human, with regular daily functions, such as affording a roof over his or her head, and to put food on the table for them to eat. "A new study by the Organization of Economic Corporation and Development has found that the U.S. minimum wage lags most rich countries. As a share of median income, the U.S. minimum wage ranks 24th out of 25 rich countries"(TheRealNews). So America can stand to give more money to the common low-paid workers in America. Many people, who work for this pay per hour, suffer to support themselves and

One of the most frequently asked questions in our country today, seems to be: “Will I have enough money to live comfortably?” With the ever growing population in America good sustainable jobs are getting harder and harder to find. Many people are settling with low paying, mindless jobs, with no chances of growth, were they are getting paid minimum wage. But, what is minimum wage? Is it a law to help people get more money or it is a law that makes it harder for unskilled workers to find jobs? The real question is; what real effects doesn’t minimum wage have on us? In the mid-20s and 30s factory and mining jobs in America were dreadful places to work at. People working were forced to work long hours for slave wages, never enough to support their families. To help support their families, children very commonly were forced to work, making less than the average America male at the time while doing just as dangerous or more dangerous jobs. On June 25, 1938 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act or the FLSA. When it was first signed it was only meant to cover only one fifth of the jobs in America, the manufacturing, mining, and transportation industries. It set the minimum hourly wage to $0.40 per hour and limited the number of hours’ person can work to 40 hours per week. In addition, it banned the use of child labor in the work place and set the minimum working age to 16 years of age. (Grossman, Jonathan) Today minimum wage has expanded to every job in

Almost 3.3 out of 76 million workers in the US receive minimum wage (Source: BLS reports). Activists for raising the minimum wage claim that the federal minimum wage of $7.25 is the reason they are living in poverty, and that the wage must be raised for a better standard of living. Many people who take on minimum wage jobs are young and work in companies that don’t carry much prestige; however, they still take pride in their work and demand higher pay (BLS reports). On the other side of the issue, there are claims that raising the minimum wage will actually have more drawbacks than benefits such as hurting the economy (Opposing Viewpoints). The

According to the Department of Labor, our federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. With this statistic, that measures to the average 40 hour per week worker earning just over fifteen thousand dollars per year, falling well under federal poverty guidelines for a single person in the United States. What this means to working class people is that we as a country value their labor, but not the worker behind the labor. With regard to those working-class people who are paid our current minimum wage, the vast majority (9 out of 10) are over the age of twenty, and almost half of those workers are women. Since the last minimum wage increase in 2009,

A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily, or monthly wage that employers may legally pay to employees or workers. The debate over minimum wage in the United States has been ongoing for over 100 years. It is a hot topic in labor, human interest, and especially in economics. Is the minimum wage too low? Is it too high? Should we have one at all? Does having a minimum legal wage help those who it is intended to help, or does it actually make them worse off? Theses questions are asked on a daily basis by interested parties. While there may not be one definitive correct answer, there are compelling arguments on both sides of the issue, and those who represent their “side” are

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

In the United States, minimum wage has remained at a low number for several years. Minimum wage is defined as the lowest possible income that an employer can legally pay an employee. This ensures that all people are fairly paid and not defrauded by companies or businesses. Minimum wage is considered a price floor and the minimum wage laws determine the lowest price possible that any employer must pay for labor. In an economic model, the quantity of supplied is greater than the quantity demanded and the minimum wage is above equilibrium price and quantity. Minimum wage prevents labor supplied and labor demanded from moving