Why Theu.s. Should Raise The Federal Minimum Wage

Although America is known as the richest country in the world, 43 million of its citizens are in poverty. Unfortunately, some of them work full time, yet are still in poverty due to the low minimum wage (“Should We Raise”). In 1928, the first federal minimum wage of 25 cents per hour was set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to prevent workers from being underpaid. Since 2009, the federal minimum wage has been $7.25 (Smith). The age old debate of whether or not to raise it is still going on in the US. The federal minimum wage should be increased to keep up with inflation, help support the poor, and stimulate the economy.

What kind of pay would you demand if you were expected to clean dirty toilets, pick up germy trash, and deal with customers who are nasty, rude and disrespectful to you while you are serving them? Would you do it for three dollars an hour? What about seven or eight dollars an hour? Well, many minimum wage jobs involve such duties as these. However, the minimum wage here in Illinois is only $8.25 per hour (US Dept. of Labor, 2014). In Indiana, the state where I work, it is a dollar less than that (US Dept. of Labor, 2014). The following information will discuss reasons why this wage should be increased and the benefits that accompany an increase for all of us regardless to whether we earn the minimum wage or a higher a wage.

It 's the year 2014, and we are in the state of the financial crisis which is still being felt

For example there is a big gap in the amount people get paid in the state in Nebraska, where the tipped wage is $2.13 and the general wage is $9.00 an hour. It is also unfair because in other states like Montana, Nevada and California have little to no gaps, this means that these states are being payed the same amount in tipped wage and general minimum wage.

Minimum Wage Minimum wage has plagued a majority of teens and young adults for years and has never truly let up on them. Minimum wage is a huge part of how Americans live our lives. Many sources used in this paper were U.S News Articles and get information from a chief economist. Minimum wage should be increased because people want to have better lives than they have now which means that they are really fighting big government reps because they need to get better support from people to help increase minimum wage for their own lives. Minimum wage affects many Americans and how they can continue to make a living or how they live their lives.

In the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the minimum wage currently remains at a meager $7.25 an hour while twenty-nine other states have raised theirs (Source 3). Kentucky essentially needs to raise theirs as well. Politicians continue to debate this topic with no end in sight. Among many reasons, Kentucky should raise its minimum wage to account for inflation, to relieve the poverty rate, and to stimulate the economy.

Before discussing the potential implications of raising the federal minimum wage, it is important to understand why such action is necessary. By historical standards, the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 is fairly low (Weissmann 1). Adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage today is over three dollars less than when its real value peaked in 1968 (ibid). Although many state and local governments have passed laws setting the minimum wage above that of the federal level, the majority of states have not, despite rising levels of GDP, productivity and cost of living. Since 1968, the average American, at all levels of income and in almost all occupations, has worked 163 more hours per year, the equivalent of a month (Schor 26). Additionally, worker productivity has doubled since that time, as indicated by Real GDP per hour worked in the United States (“Real GDP”). So although the average worker is twice as productive now as he was in 1968, his real wage earned is

People in society must work in order to make a living, whether they have a highly skilled job, such as nursing or even lower skilled job such as working at fast food restaurant, they all must work to sustain themselves and their family. Many people who work in these low skilled jobs, get paid much less than the higher skilled jobs, however there are laws to protect these unskilled works, such as minimum wage. Minimum wage is the minimum hourly wage that an employer can pay its employees, preventing employees being exploited by their employers. Changing the minimum wage has positive and negative effects for both the workers, and businesses which makes raising minimum wage controversial.

The authors would like for the American people to rethink why they are so in favor of a raise in the minimum wage. They point out that while a raise sounds good in theory there is no evidence that it will help us raise anyone out of poverty. They also argue throughout the article that the differing political parties are in fact maneuvering us, the voters, to whom they would like for us to vote for by playing on our desire for more money. Finally they suggest that there are other methods to help the American people then raising the minimum wage.

What if a 16 year old was making $18,000 a year after taxes, working only 25 hours a week? Most likely you would expect that teenager to have a pretty prestigious job at such a young age. However that is not the case, if the minimum wage is raised to $15 an hour, a 16 year old could make $18,000 yearly working only 25 hours a week at McDonalds. Now for teenagers that have goals for college or a car, that would money to set aside for the future, however most 16 year olds do not have those goals in mind yet, so that extra money turns into wasted money. As of February 2016 the minimum wage ranges anywhere from $7.25-$10 across the United States. Florida’s rate is at $8.05 an hour, however some believe the minimum wage should be raised to $15 an hour in all states(Raise).” People working in minimum wage jobs may feel as if this $7 bump would be a great advantage to them, but there are possible negative results of doing this too. As a manager of a restaurant where employees start at minimum wage, I can only imagine the effects our company would feel. Raising the minimum wage is not the solution to helping people out of poverty , I feel it will only be enabling them to stay in the same position they are in and give less motivation for teens to further their generation. Increasing the minimum wage will harm businesses and will decrease the motivation to get a further education.

To this day, the American economy and its workers are experiencing the effects of the enactment of the minimum wage law. The cost of living has increased exponentially and the minimum wage hasn’t risen effectively. In fact, 47 million, or 14% of Americans are living in poverty to this day (“Poverty: 2013 Highlights”

The issue of poverty in America is a growing controversial topic that affects millions of Americans. American citizens are poor and work as much as they can but continuously go in and out of poverty. Very few impoverished Americans have little or no work on a continuous basis, but they tend to stay poor from one generation to the next. Due to the current system of economy and the United States increases in poverty, the American people are in need of a change. The New York Times Editorial Board informs readers and argues that raising the minimum wage would restore the lives of millions of Americans. In the Editorial Board’s article “The Case for a Higher Minimum Wage” they discuss how Republicans perceive the minimum wage in a negative light, the minimum wage is viewed as “the lowest legal hourly rate” (Editorial Board 2). However, the Editorial Board explains the minimum wage is an economic security blanket for millions of Americans. The editorial Board supports their claim that the perception of minimum wage is skewed due to politics by implementing relevant expert opinions and fairly referencing and rebutting counterarguments, which forms a reasonable, credible, and believable argument.

The debate whether the government should raise the minimum wage has been challenged for many years and it is crucial to deliberate the ethical facets of such a conundrum. Research and economic texts have reported over many years that it is perhaps very difficult to

There have been many questions raised about increasing the minimum wage in the United States but not many people have the knowledge to understand how their lives will be affected. People are more concerned about increasing the minimum wage into living wage. Everyone should be educated and have concerns about the politics of raising minimum wage to a living wage.

“Paying your employees well is not only the right thing to do, but it makes for good business”-Jim Sinegal, CEO of Costco. Many of America’s employees are not being paid well, however, for the annual income of a full-time employee who works year-round is less than $16,000 (about $15, 080) according to the current federal minimum wage (Rebuilding). To put into retrospect how out-dated the federal minimum wage is, consider that the minimum wage of 1956 amounted to exactly $7.93 in 2009 (Henderson). How progressive is it that our nation’s workers being paid less today than workers from the 50’s? The federal minimum wage should be raised in order to assist families out of poverty, to ensure the effort and loyalty of workers, and