Should Minimum Wage be Significantly Increased in the United States

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Recommended: Positive and negative effects of raising the minimum wage

The minimum wage was set in a federal mandate back in the 1938, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to have a minimum hourly wage set across the United States. The bill is known as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). It was founded to boost the low-income families and provide some money to the full time workers. In its original form, the bill first covered about 38 percent of the workers in America such as covering the workers in the mining field and transportation industry. As we became more technologically advanced it starting covering the airplane industry by 1947 and construction sites by the early sixties. In America today, the FLSA has covered close to 85 percent of the American workforce (Wilson, September 2012). The FLSA requirement requires all employers to meet this mandate or the mandate set in forth by their own state which is allowed. Out of fifty states, forty-five have set their own minimum wage, and eighteen states are currently above the federal standard for the minimum wage (Wilson, September 2012). People around the country all say that we need to increase the minimum wage. What they don’t realize is that doing so, there will be an impact on jobs, even though the government is saying it will have a minor impact. There is in no form or facts that can back up what the government is saying. When the government says they want to increase the hourly wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour they honestly believe that will solve the economies problem, by putting more money in the spender’s hand. What they also realize is they have no control over the business man making the goods they buy and sell pricier. The government knows this and yet by telling us lies and things we want to hear we believe them and vote into of... ... middle of paper ... ...nd out that the milk that they have purchased for the last twelve years, at $3.89 a gallon, has risen to almost 5 dollars for a gallon of milk. When this federal mandate comes in, businesses will have to raise their prices on outgoing goods to support the business because the products they buy will go up. Their workers hourly rate has risen, causing the employer to stop hiring other people and start making cuts sometimes to keep his or her business afloat. Its real simple economics, if one price goes up then they all go up to stay equal with one another. Small businesses that go out will lead to bigger businesses having an empire over everyone and any other small business that wants to compete. Works Cited Wilson, M. (september). The negative effecs of minimum wage laws. Retrieved from http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/labor/negative-effects-minimum-wage-laws

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