"No family gets rich from earning the minimum wage. In fact, the current minimum wage does not even lift a family out of poverty."
-- Jon Corzine
Many people can think back and remember what it was like to put in an application for that first job and be presented with a position. Taking that position represents adulthood and is a very exciting time for a young person. All first jobs usually start with a minimum wage. Minimum wage is the minimum an employer has to pay an unskilled worker based on the regulations set forth by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that was originally established in 1938. As people think back about their first jobs they can also remember what the minimum wage was when they took that position.
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The FLSA regulates this to ensure that the employers are paying fair wages to their employee’s. FLSA also regulates hours worked by an employee to ensure that an employer is paying time and one half for all hours worked past forty in a work week. Minimum wages are different in some states. Many states also have state minimum wage laws.
Below you will see an example of how state law minimum wage and federal minimum wage compares.
Consolidated State Minimum Wage Update Table (Effective Date: 01/01/2010)
> Federal MW = Federal MW of $7.25 < Federal MW No MW Required
AK – 7.75 AZ AR – 6.25 AL
CA – 8.00 DE CO – 7.24 LA
CT – 8.25 FL GA – 5.15 MS
DC – 8.25 HI MN – 6.15 SC
IL – 8.00 IA WY – 5.15 TN
MA – 8.00 ID
ME – 7.50 IN
MI – 7.40 KS
NV – 7.55 KY
NM – 7.50 MD
OH – 7.30 MO
OR – 8.30 MT
RI – 7.40 NE
VT – 8.06 NH
WA – 8.55 NJ NC ND OK PA SD TX UT VA WV WI
14 STATES PLUS DC 26 STATES 5 STATES 5 STATES
States such as Tennessee and Alabama do not have a minimum wage law within the state, so workers would get the $7.25 in these states as a starting wage. States such as California and New Mexico have both the federal and state wage laws. This means the worker would be entitled to the higher of the two wages as a starting wage. Looking at the visual above there are some states that pay below minimum wage.
Twenty six states follow the minimum
Minimum wages laws fluctuate throughout all fifty (50) states. The federal government has minimum wage set at $7.25. Although the government has the law in place, states and cities must right to increase the minimum wage, but they are not allowed to decrease the value below the federal law. According to Caplinger, there are about twenty- one (21) states that have a minimum wage higher than the national level. These states that have higher minimum wage tend to have a higher population. For example, California, as a state, has decided to increase their minimum wage law due to the standard of living. This law to raise minimum wage to ¬¬¬$10.50 in California is in progress to take effect in January 2018(Kravosky). Some cities within states, can create their own minimum wage. Cities create these minimum wages based on the population size, cost of living, and size of the city. For example, Atlanta, Georgia has a minimum wage of $15 an hour but the state of Georgia has minimum wage set
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.
All 50 states have their own minimum wages and make their own laws on how much they want to pay an employee. “There are 2 states than have a minimum wage set lower than the federal minimum wage. There are 29 states plus the District of Columbia with minimum wage rates set higher than the federal minimum wage. There are 14 states that have a minimum wage requirement that is the same as the federal minimum wage requirement. The remaining 5 states do not have an established minimum wage requirement.” (WHD, 2017). In the state of Minnesota there are two different minimum wages. The minimum wage for small employers (Enterprise with annual receipts
Minimum wage is the minimum hourly wage an employee can be paid from their employer. The federal minimum wage is set at seven dollars and twenty-five cents an hour in the state of Mississippi. Some states have chosen to raise their minimum wage higher than federal requires. San Francisco, CA, has the highest minimum wage fixed at ten dollars and fifty-five cents. Even though, some states have a higher minimum wage than others. The Fair Labor Standards Act entails every employee to be paid the same amount. If minimum wage was to be raised, it would have advantages and disadvantages.
The minimum wage in the United States has been an ongoing controversy for many years now. The first minimum wage was established in 1938 (Reich, 2015, P. 3). That minimum wage started out at .25 cents an hour; compared to today’s higher wage of a government standard of $7.25 an hour. Many people believe that the minimum wage should be more so that those who live below the poverty level in the United States will decrease, however in many other people’s opinions the minimum wage should be the same. The minimum wage should stay the same at a low $7.25.
For potential employees in the United States, one of the first things people want to know is what how much they are going to be paid. Minimum wage has been and continues be a very important topic for workers. The Fair Labor Standards Act was enacted in 1938 to protect our workers during the Great Depression under Franklin Roosevelt. According to the book, Legal Environment of Business: Online Commerce, Business Ethics, and Global Issues, “the Fair Labor Standards Act establishes a minimum wage and overtime pay requirements for workers (Cheeseman, 2016, p.454).”
The debate about the minimum wages or what is the lowest amount the employer can pay to his worker has been a big concern in US since the 1938 when the first federal minimum wage law was introduced. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 has set the federal minimum wage at $0.25. Adjusted to inflation it would worth around $4.13 today (Kurtz, 2013).
Minimum wage is different for everyone depending on where they reside and their occupation. We aren't even the only government debating this topic. Many other countries are also facing the minimum wage controversy ("Minimum Wage"). Other parts of
“Of course, nothing helps families make ends meet like higher wages. … And to everyone in this Congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage, I say this: If you truly believe you could work full-time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it. If not, vote to give millions of the hardest-working people in America a raise.”
This is the baseline each state can make their own minimum wage. The employees are paid the higher of the two wages. Ohio’s for instance is currently $8.15. I think it would be interesting to see the minimum wage go up, so the people who work those jobs have the ability to afford food, a moderate rent, clothing from a discount store, and maybe a little leftover to save for a rainy day. I think a wage of about $10 to $13 would be able to manage such requirements. A supply and demand graph of the labor market with a $11.25 minimum wage is depicted below in Figure
The minimum wage is the lowest wage employers are to give an employee for every hour working . In the United states this was not always the case, it was not until the end of 1800 some sort of regulation was established. In 1984 New Zealand published the first minimum wage law (Smith, Halpen 2018). As other countries adopted this law United States also created their own version as they released The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) . This established a minimum wage and overtime pay. The new law at that time also required some form of recordkeeping for the first time, along with setting a standard for youth employment, for full-time and part-time workers in the private sector, Federal State, and local governments. During this time
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.
Who does make minimum wages? Through out American history, there had been a huge increase in wages. In the 1940s through 2010, the minimum wage that was adjust rose from $3.40 to $7.25. In those same years, the minimum wage for unadjusted rose from $.25 to $7.50. The debate on who gets minimum wage or if it should be raise, has been going on for decades now, and some states can’t make a decision. About 11 States and District of Columbia had raised their minimum wage, and some cities like Los Angeles nearly double their minimum wage to $15. However, some of those places tried to make sure a certain group doesn’t get the same rights. Some States think it is best for minors not to get the same minimum wage as adults due to their age and experiences. However, minors (those under 18) should make minimum wage as the adults.
However, many states have minimum wage laws that are usually higher than the meager federal standard. Whenever employees are subject to both state and federal minimum wage laws, they are entitled to receive the higher minimum wage. Because Congress has experienced continual gridlock regarding minimum wage regulations, a high number of states have raised their own minimum wages. Around 30 states have set their minimum wage above the federal standard of $7.25 per hour. In fact, over 15 states require that their minimum wages automatically increase with the cost of living. A number of states have also passed resolutions to automatically increase wages in the coming years. Almost 10 states require that the tipped minimum wage, for workers like waiters and porters, must equal the full minimum
Minimum wage laws decisively determine the lowest hourly wage employers can pay employees. Journalist Al Krulick explains and summarizes the minimum wage laws. In America, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 set by the Fair Labors Standards Act. States have the right to alter the minimum wage to either more or less; however, the employee will always receive the higher wage between the federal and a state. If the minimum wage in a particular state is lower than the federal, then the employee is entitled to