Minimum Wage Should Be Raised

“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

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 is the lowest hourly rate that employers may legally pay to workers. It is a price floor. The forbearer to the minimum wage can be traced to medieval England. In 1348, the Black Plague decimated the English people. This caused a serious labor shortage and caused wages to sky rocket. King Edward III was inclined to set a wage ceiling contained in the Ordinance of Labourers (1349). Mihm, S. (2013, September 5). How the Black Death Spawned the Minimum Wage. The laws were eventually used to set a living wage. In the U.S., mandatory minimum wages were first introduced nationally in 1938. Department of Labor (2014, April 17) Grossman, Jonathan. "Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938: Maximum Struggle for a Minimum Wage". Many states also have

From the article, what I have gathered that there has been a detailed deliberation and

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is a law that states what the lowest amount a business can pay a contracted employee. Currently the law states that the federal minimum wage is $7.25 but there are many states that have their own minimum wage laws. There has been an ongoing protest over minimum wage for a long time and it has been changing consistently ever since 1938 with the latest change in 2009 when it went from $6.55 to $7.25. Many people think it should keep going up but many other people think it is going to hurt our economy if it goes up. There are many things that raising the minimum wage can affect in the economy and there are many steps that go into raising it. I think that the minimum wage should be raised to

In today's society it's expensive to live in America and even getting day by day is very difficult if you are living on minimum wage, of course it's more difficult for some people than others depending on their situation and their living conditions. America should raise minimum wage because it would make things easier for people who are struggling. A higher minimum wage not only increases workers’ incomes, it will also be good for our economy. A quarter of people working minimum wage are at least raising one child. This change will help a lot of people it would make our country a better place.

During the late 19th century, and even a few decades into the 20th century, American laborers worked intensely. They worked both many hours and with very little pay. The bosses of these workers would pay them as much or as little as they saw fit. It wasn’t up until the year 1938 that the federal minimum wage was established in America at $0.25 per hour (that being equal to about $4.21 now). It was one of the greatest things in America at that time. It was revolutionary as a matter of fact.

In 1938, after many years of debate and firm opposition from the supreme court, the United States enacted the Fair Labor Standards Act, which set a 25 cent minimum wage, and a 40 hour work week for many professions, but nowadays, the minimum wage has fallen well behind the cost of living and fallen behind inflation. Forcing states to have minimum wages based on their cost of living, would put billions more dollars into the economy and significantly boost the salary of millions of people.

How does an employer decide how much to pay his employees? Logically, he 'd want to reduce overhead costs by paying them as little as possible. Minimum wage laws exist to protect workers from being exploited by wages too low to live on, as well as in an effort to reduce poverty in society and it 's far-reaching consequences. Many states have laws that raise the minimum wage at the same rate as inflation, but the federal government does not (Whitaker 634). The value of a new minimum wage begins to fall from the moment it is set. Because the costs of living are always rising, it is a hardship on those who must rely on wages which constantly degrade in value to meet these costs. The federal minimum wage, $7.25, has become too little for anyone to live on, especially without public assistance. The federal minimum wage has lagged further and further behind inflation over the last forty years (Covert). The minimum wage should be raised to a living wage for the entire country and set to index with inflation. As the cost of living increases, the wages paid to employees to cover that cost also needs to be regulated to increase in order to address income inequality and bureaucratic oversight; additionally, recent analysis shows that there would likely be modest benefits to the economy in the event of a modest federal minimum wage hike.

In 1938, a federal minimum wage was established through a law called the Fair Labor Standards Act. It was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. This was also the first time that employers were legally required

The minimum wage should be increased depending on each state. Some states are more expensive to live in such as Washington and New York. The minimum wage should barely stay the same or increase in non-expensive areas. There are many different reasons to increase or decrease the minimum wage.

The United States Government established the first federal minimum wage in 1938. Since its inception, most states have also instituted their own minimum wage requirements. The purpose is to ensure that employers are compensating all workers fairly, by preventing them from paying below a mandated level. These laws were enacted to help safeguard the welfare of American workers as a result of the economic instability felt during the Great Depression. Although they were designed to protect workers, history has shown that they often end up causing more harm than good to both the workers they are intended to help and the economy as a whole. This is explained by the Cato Institute’s Mark Wilson in a 2012 report as he states:

Minimum wage always seems like a topic of conversation in the media. As of now, the current set minimum wage has been claimed as not being a livable wage, therefore there has been an outcry to raise it. However, we cannot turn a blind eye to what that may do to our economy. While raising the minimum wage can have a beneficial effects of providing a livable wage, reducing the need for dependent of poverty-focused government resources, and may even reduce crime, there can be many hidden problems that crop up through the woodwork that can undermine this improvement.

The unions were brutally crushed by the industry leaders of the time period, with both private and federal armies being used to break strikes, strikebreakers being hired to take over the jobs vacated by the workers on strike, and blacklists being made to ensure the strikers never got a good job again. It was not until 1938 the Fair Labor Standards Act established a minimum wage, at 25 cents an hour. However absurd that paltry amount of cash seems, it marked a turning point for the United States, and paved the way for better working conditions and better pay. Unfortunately, minimum wage laws have faced heavy opposition from a number of powerful political and economic figures, and the federally mandated wage bumped along until it reached the current minimum wage of $7.25 in 2009 (“History”). This means in over seven decades the United States has seen a grand total of a seven dollar increase in minimum wage. According to dollartimes’ “Calculate the Value of a Dollar in 1940”; in the span of the 78 years between 1938 and 2016, inflation has decreased the value of the dollar by 1542.53 percent. Even though the $7.25 of today is far better than the $.25 of 1938, the market of the United States has also changed, and while it was possible to work ones way up from minimum wage in the 20th century, the 21st century has a far lesser demand for skilled labor, meaning the jobs requiring skilled labor offer more than minimum wage already, and the jobs offering minimum wage rarely need more than the unskilled labor plentiful in the United

As the strongest developed country in the world, United States had legislated minimum wage to guarantee income for workers in early time. Minimum wage is an efficient tool to improve labor market in history. However, the first country legislated minimum wage is New Zealand that was enforced by compulsory arbitration (Verrill, 1915:105). United States legisted minimum wage system with the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and set the federal minimum wage is $0.25 per hour. The 1938 Act was applicable generally to employees engaged in interstate commerce or in the production of goods for interstate commerce (US Department of Labor, 2009). Then the minimum wage level increases several times because of productivity improvement and increasing inflation rate. The federal government has to update the minimum wage level frequently. In 1961, there was new policy extended coverage primarily to employees in large retail and service enterprises as well as to local transit, construction, and gasoline service station employees (US Department of Labor, 2009). In 1966, the labor system