“We should raise the minimum wage so that no one who works full time has to live in poverty” is a famous quote by Barack Obama. I agree with him because raising the minimum wage would help families improve. A mother and father wouldn’t have to work forty-plus hours a week to make sure all the bills are paid and the family that they created together has everything they need. They cannot afford to take off days to have family time and rest. The federal government has set the wage for adults with children, teens, and even single parents to seven dollars and twenty-five cents. This event leaves a household under the federal poverty threshold.
The wage was introduced during the Great Depression under the United States President Franklin Roosevelt in nineteen thirty-eight. It was created to avoid pocket vetoes. “All our able-bodied working man and women a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work,” said President Roosevelt in the bill that he sent to Congress on May 24, 1937. ‘The exploitation of child labor and the undercutting of wages and the stretching of the hours of the poorest paid workers in periods of business recession has a serious effect on buying power’ (Dol.gov, 2020). The minimum wage hasn’t always been seven dollars and twenty-five cents in nineteen forty-nine it was raised from forty cents to seventy-five cents (Edlabor.house.gov, 2020). The minimum wage was less than that the years before. Employees were even getting paid one cent. As a result of Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority. Employers were starting to get paid one and a half hours for each hour they worked overtime. On July 24, 2009, that’s when it went to seven dollars and twenty-five cents. Set by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Workers who get tips can make at least two dollars and thirteen cents as long and the tips they receive reach minimum wage. A study was done in two thousand and twelve by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, to see how many hours a week would a person that’s only making minimum wage have to work just so that they can afford a two-bedroom house. Employees would have to work at least 63 hours a week and that’s only to afford standard rent (Dol.gov, 2020).
Raising the minimum wage also comes with a lot of opportunities and obstacles. Employees would start to be laid off because the employer could no longer afford to keep all their employees while paying them a higher rate so that they can remain within budget. Prices will eventually go up on food, clothes, shoes the employers would need to make enough to support their employees. Jobs would stop hiring unemployed people because they cannot afford to have as many workers as they had before. Even though California’s minimum wage is twelve dollars to live it is very expensive.
The minimum wage should be raised even though there are some disadvantage’s think about all the great opportunities. Having extra money to spend, not having to save all your checks for bills, and being able to have vacation money. Children would stop feeling neglected because their parents are never home or feeling like their choosing work over them. When in reality they are working so hard to provide for them. Seven twenty-five is too low for individuals to live on. The higher minimum wage would make citizens want a job and grow the economy.
People actually have to force themselves to get up and go to work every day. Scared to call in sick if they’re not feeling good. Knowing that one day that was missed would have a major effect on their next check. Employees go above and beyond for their employers only to be getting paid minimum wage. It would even reduce government welfare spending if low-income employees earned more money because their benefits would decrease. The higher wage should be given people shouldn’t have to budget. Having to buy used cars because they can’t afford a new one or even payments. That’s not the way we want to live we want better homes, new cars, extra money for family vacations. We want to be able to work a decent number of hours and still be able to take care of personal things that are going on at home.
