Increased Minimum Wage

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Minimum Wage: Should it be Increased? The controversy remains today about whether the federal U.S. minimum wage should be increased. Currently, the United States minimum wage rate is $7.25. Some argue that it should be raised on account of it not currently being an adequate living salary, which is what minimum wage was created for. Minimum wage workers are having to live solely based on this income, thus bringing the question of does it need to be raised. The first minimum wage in the U.S. was established in Massachusetts in 1912. In 1924, the United States Supreme Court felt that minimum wage laws were a violation of the United States 5th amendment which states citizens have a right to a business and contract without government interference. The United States Supreme Court later changed their views in 1937 during the Great Depression. In 1938, minimum wage was set at just 40 cents an hour; since 1938, the minimum wage rate has been raised 13 …show more content…

Norm Ornstein argues that with the current minimum wage there is no way these full-time minimum wage workers can live off of this salary, unless they have government assistance (Ornstein). The way to solve this issue would be to raise minimum wage. Especially the single parent families. The single parent families cannot always get stable well paying jobs because of their busy schedule, therefore they have to resort to minimum wage paying jobs. Raising minimum wage will immensely help these families (Sklar), The workers who are working for the minimum wage salary will not be spending money on big expensive corporations, this money will go back into local businesses that need money (Sklar). Most of the arguments made for raising minimum wage is that it will help the minimum wage workers struggling to make ends meet. However, there are many more arguments as to why this could be a bad

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