Will the rise in the minimum wage help or hurt the economy? This is a great question to ask from an economic standpoint. Since ‘The Great Depression' the federal minimum wage has been in effect. Lately, fight to raise the minimum wage has been a hot topic. Whether or not to increase it, or if it should exist at all. What will be the burden on small businesses? How is will they balance their needs and the needs of their workers? Also, how will the minimum wage affect a business's profitability? We will examine these issues throughout this paper. Plus, discuss the history of the minimum wage, who collects it, and the effect a raise would have on the economy and the American business.
In 1912, the first place in America to announce a minimum wage was Massachusetts, but before it was set another twenty-five years would pass. June 25, 1938, President Roosevelt signed the minimum wage into law, it was part of The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. It started out at $0.25 per hour, which would be equal to $4.18 in today's economy. This rise in income affected about 20% on the labor force. The decree was revolutionary, not many countries had anything like it set in place. In 2012, 74.6 million workers over the age of sixteen were paid an hourly wage, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 3.5 million people that were part of this group were paid minimum wage or lower. Studies from 2012 show that most earners of minimum wage are inclined to be young and a woman.
Now it is
My topic of interest is the effects of raising minimum wage in the U.S. Minimum wage is defined as the lowest wage permitted by law or by special agreement. In 1938, President Roosevelt signed a bill called the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which set the minimum wage at $0.25. Although, overtime inflation devalued the amount of the dollar so it was raised there on. After raising the minimum wage the cost of living would keep going up every year. Also, currently advocates are arguing that the living wage should be 125% above the poverty line so that full time workers can afford a living.
One of the biggest political topics in today's society is the federal minimum wage and whether it should be raised or kept at where it is now at $7.25 an hour. Arguments could be made for both sides on whether it should be raised or left alone. The majority of minimum wage in today’s job market are unskilled positions. Minimum wage jobs were created for teenagers and colleges kids as a way to get into the workforce and to have a little extra money for themselves. It was not designed to be a wage for people to live on. Increasing the minimum wage would hurt the economy by hurting small businesses, a huge loss of jobs and it would increase the competition between teens and adults. Overall if the federal minimum wage is increased it will have many negative effects on the economy.
The minimum wage was established in the United States by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 at 25 cents per hour. These laws are broadly supported by the public. Congress enacted these rules to combat “labor conditions detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and the general well-being of the workers” (Sharp, 2013 p. 71). The purpose and intent of
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)
The federal minimum wage laws were first created on June 25, 1938 through the Department of Labor and signed by President Franklin Roosevelt in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This enacted the first $0.25
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
1938 -- The minimum wage was first enacted into law as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938. The original minimum wage applied to workers engaged in interstate commerce and the production of goods for interstate commerce. In 1938, this applied to roughly 11.0 million workers out of a total of 54.9 million workers. The minimum wage was set at $0.25 per hour.
In a world governed by the rule of currency has a major effect toward the amount an individual owns. The current world economy, labor is required in order to supply services to whomever is willing to buy. The amount of money distributed and earned throughout the economy feeds the nation 's GDP, which shows the stability of the overall economy of that nation. There is an imaginary sequence that must be established in an economy in order to balance both labor and revenue to stabilize a country’s economy.
The federal minimum wage act was enacted on June 24, 1938 it started at twenty five cents an hour which would equal $3.50 today. The law was enacted to reduce the amount of poverty that had come about during the great depression. Looking at the past years of the wage when adjusted for inflation, the federal minimum wage reached
Proponents of raising the minimum wage claim that if the minimum wage was raised, then many economic and social problems would be alleviated. This contention is at odds both with economic principles and years of creditable research. The effect of raising or even having a minimum wage has been studied extensively and the majority of studies have proven that raising a minimum wage does not have the desired effect. Both micro and macroeconomic forces affect the results of raising the minimum wage. The secondary effects of raising the minimum wage are bad both for
Minimum wage was introduced in 1938 during the Great Depression by Franklin Roosevelt. Congress composed minimum wage with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The initial wage was set at 25 cents an hour. Minimum wage fluctuates greatly in inflation-adjusted buying power.The current national minimum wage is $7.25. Congress normally only permits the minimum wage to be raised during low unemployment and a stable economy (James Sherk, 2015).
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, from the United States Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, was a policy to change the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 in three additions, which began in July of 2009. (U.S., 2009).
They do pay a living wage. There is this gentleman named Jacob Lund Fisker. He has a blog Early Retirement Extreme (http://earlyretirementextreme.com)
In America's service industry, specifically that of food, we have a tradition, if you will, of giving a certain portion of the bill as a grituity to the servers. Over the past year or so this has been a target of controversy, not of whether you should or shouldn't tip necessarily, but whether the servers themselves should get paid the federal or state minimum wage or a sub-minimum wage that is supplemented by the likelyhood of you getting tips from the people you have served. I, however, am a firm believer in the status-quo. That is, I think a sub-minimum wage is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
This essay will give an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of the minimum wage. There are many different opinions about whether a national minimum wage is a good or a bad thing for our economy and people individually and by looking into various different resources and researching thoroughly, a conclusion will be drawn to hopefully provide a fair and unbiased review.