Wager on the Wagess Essay

Submitted By soulasian
Words: 1438
Pages: 6

Wager on the Wages President Franklin Roosevelt in 1938, signed the federal minimum wage at the height of the Great Depression. Seventy-five years later up to this date, there are now two types of minimum wage in the United States, the state and federal minimum. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, but is $2.13 an hour for tipped employees (employees who receive tips). States have the ability to make their own minimum wage but when employees get paid, the higher wage of the two, is paid. The last time the federal minimum wage was increased was back on July 24, 2009, when it rose from $6.55 to $7.25. With the economy down, people living off minimum wage can barely make it through life due to the high cost of living. That is why the federal minimum wage should be increased to $9 an hour. In the first place, over 46.2 million American citizens remain below the poverty line, of those 46.2 million people, 3.8 million workers earn the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour or less. The cost of living in United States has been increasing constantly overtime and with the recession, it only makes it worse. The government also fails to increase the wages of workers to, meet the demand of cost for living resulting in an increase in poverty. For example back in 1968, the federal minimum wage was $1.60 per hour, which converts to $10.27 now and if government did keep up with the cost of living, the minimum wage would be $10.59 (a $3.34 increase), according to Jen Kern, Minimum Wage Campaign Coordinator, in "Minimum Wage Question and Answer" from Raise The Minimum Wage, published February 13, 2013. Along the same line, a full time- worker working 40+ hours a week , earning minimum wage makes only $15,080 a year; a part time- worker would only make half of that. The official poverty level of a family of three is $19,530, which is $4450 or $370.83 a month that the minimum wage worker won't receive, according to Peter Dreier, chairman of the Urban & Environmental policy department, at Occidental College, in article "Raising the Minimum Wage is Good for Business (But the Corporate Lobby Doesn't Think So)," published by The Huffington Post, on February 23, 2013. Not to mention, of all the minimum wage workers, 16.6% of them are ages 16-19, which would be high school/ college kids. The other 83.4% are made up of 20+ year olds, with 24.1% of the 83.4% being 25-34 year olds and even 10.4% of that being 55-64 year old workers! stated again by Jen Kern," Minimum Wage Question and Answer". In addition, Steven King, a man in his late 50's, early 60's , is an example of a minimum wage worker. Steven King has been living on minimum wage for four years, last year he earned only $8400. He pays bills with one check and rent with the other, leaving him with little money; and also receives $200 a month for food and a phone, as indicated by Dan Voorhis, writer of "No Easy Answers On Minimum Wage" from The Wicita Eagle, published February, 28, 2013. In similar sense , by having millions of people living in poverty and working for minimum wage, will decrease the working ability of employees. In like manner, low wages reduces employee work efficiency. Working at low wages like $7.25 or $2.13 per hour does not make workers want to work that hard for their money, where as when compared to high paying jobs like doctors, who work hard and get paid over $50+ per hour. Low wages also make workers not care much for the jobs, meaning they don't show up to work and work turnout becomes a big problem for employers. According to Jack Temple, a Policy Analyst, in "A Strong Minimum Wage Can Help Working Families, Businesses and Our Economy Recovery" from NELP, published January 2011. "Increasing wages reduces costly employee turnover and increases productively. When the minimum wage goes up, employers can enjoy these benefits of paying higher wages without being placed at a competitive disadvantage, since all companies in their field are required to