Raising the Minimum Wage, A Speech Outline Essay

A. Since July 24, 2009, the federal minimum wage has been $7.25, but as of 2016 the living wage – the hourly rate a single person must earn to support themselves or their family – is quite a bit higher.

For millions of Americans, this difference means placing food on the table for their children or the ability to pay their rent in full. _________ states that the last adjustment of the federal minimum wage was in _______________. Inflation between these years must be accounted for between these years, as the value of the dollar is dropping imperceptibly. Meanwhile, the price of living is at an all time high within the western world. This means that the value of the minimum wage is also dropping steadily, rendering millions who depend on only this income helpless. Contrary to popular myths, an increase in this number will harm neither the economy nor

The per capita income over the last twelve months over the same time frame was $36,355, and there was 2.9% of the population living in poverty (US Census Bureau 2010).

No one can expect a family to live on such little income, and to be able to pay for all of the expenses of living. Those expenses would include housing, water, electric, food, clothing, and day care service if need. The amount a minimum wage worker would make in a year is $14,500. This amount is way below average; the average income is around $60,000. Compare quick and one will shortly realize that the current minimum is obviously much to low. Increase in the minimum wage is needed.

The poverty status in the last 12 months for all families, White alone is 8.3%, Black alone is 30.4%, American Indian and Alaska Native alone is 37.8%, Asian alone is 16.5%, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone is 30.8%, some other race alone is 35.9%, and two or more races alone is 32.0% (U.S. Census Bureau, 2017). (ADD NEW STUFF FROM CQ ALMANAC FOR VOTING AND CONSTIUENTS)

For over a decade, many Americans have struggled with the low wage issued from employers, despite working very long hours of work. According to a study done in Oregon State University, a federal minimum wage was first set in 1938, starting at 25 cents an hour. Due to inflation that has occurred many times throughout the century, the call for raising minimum wage is to be immediately answered. However, the minimum wage falls when congress does not raise the minimum wage to keep up with inflation. Because of this many cities and states have departed from the minimum wage. In this essay, to be discussed is the reason why imposing a minimum wage above the equilibrium wage will reduce employment and contribute to an increase in the unemployment rate.

The number of children who are living in poverty have decreased for the first time in almost ten years. The Census Bureau reported a 0.5 percent decrease of Americans living in poverty from 2012 to 2013. Poverty is among the country’s contemporary social problems in the Twenty-First Century. According to the Census Bureau, 45.3 million people were categorized as living in poverty in 2013. To address contemporary social problems like poverty, one must take an in depth look at the reasons why there are so many people dealing with poverty and the challenges that arise from trying to escape it.

U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has said, “It is a national disgrace that millions of full-time workers are living in poverty and millions more are forced to work two or three jobs just to pay their bills” (Wolf 1). Sanders has said this frequently and is referring to the drastic amount of Americans who are currently struggling, despite already having a job. The issue of whether or not to raise the minimum wage in America has been a widely discussed topic for years. Minimum wage refers to the smallest amount of money a worker can legally be paid in the U.S. It was first signed into law in 1938 by President Franklin Roosevelt in order to keep workers out of poverty and as it stands, the current federal minimum wage in

Poverty rate for children under 18 was 21.1 percent higher than any other adult population in America according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In an article written by Angus Deaton, he discusses the issues behind poverty and why it is persistent in the United States. In the beginning of his article, he presents data from the World Bank which states that 3.2 million out of 769 million of the world's poorest people are living in the United States and are living off of less than $1.90 a day as of 2013 (Deaton). Some of the arguments he mentions that may contribute to the United States high poverty rate include where our poverty line is set, the quality of our necessities, and our government aid.

Years ago in the late 1960s, a full-time worker earning the minimum wage could lift a family of three out of poverty (Vallas & Boteach, 2014). The rise of the cost for daily living over the years including groceries, medical bills, and raising children makes it impossible for a family to live off a minimum wage salary. “Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour and indexing it to inflation—as President Barack Obama and several members of Congress have called for—would lift more than 4 million Americans out of poverty” (Vallas & Boteach, 2014). This would extremely benefit the American people and the

The working poor are people in the labor force but receive an income that’s below the

The cost of living is increasingly becoming more out of reach to those who get paid minimum wage. As prices on products increase, a person's earnings stay the same. To combat this problem, cities like the above mentioned raise the minimum wage to more or less fit the cost of living. According to Investopedia the cost of living is “the amount of money needed to sustain a certain

The federal government measures poverty by the numbers. In 2007, the federal “poverty line” was set at $16,530 for a family of three and $21,203 for a family of four (USCB). If a family makes less than those

Poverty has been on a incline since the economic downturn in 2007. Poverty is defined as “the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount”, but a more modern definition used today is “in state of being extremely poor”. According to “Poverty in the United States” a report done by Congressional Digest, the poverty line in 2012 was 15.0 percent, which represents 46.5 million people living at or below the poverty line, and was 2.7 points higher in this year than in 2007. The article also stated that in 2012, the family poverty rate and the number of families in poverty was 11.8 percent and 9.5 million and the median income for households was $51,017, which means many of these households have students who become eligible for free lunches. In Lindsey Layton’s article “Most Public