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Essay on The Minimum Wage Must Be Increased

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"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. …show more content…

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

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