Should Minimum Wage Be Raised Nationwide?

Trehvon Williams

Professor Kristina L Secunda

EN 131 R

December 4, 2016

Should minimum wage be raised Nationwide

    Should the minimum wage be increased nationwide across America? Some history on minimum wage is that it was created during the Great Depression in 1938 under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The first ever minimum wage was at the wage of .25 cents per hour but since then congress has raised it twenty-two times. The latest raise in the minimum wage was in 2015 when it raised from 7.25 in 2009 to 8.05 in 2012. The minimum wage was created under an act, The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938: the Maximum struggle for minimum wage(FLSA). ‘the act applied to the industries whose combined employment represented which was only about one-fifth of the labor force. In these Industries, it banned oppressive child labor and set the minimum hourly wage at .25 cents and the maximum worksheet at 44 hours". Although in court the District of Columbia law that set minimum wages for women was voided by a narrow margin in 1933. President Roosevelt created the "New Deal" program. His advisers developed a National Industrial Recovery Act(NRA). This act suspended antitrust laws so that industries could enforce fair-trade codes resulting in less-competition and higher wages. Roosevelt promulgated a President's reemployment agreement "to raise wages to create employment, and thus restore business "with this done employers agreed to sign more than a whopping 2.3 million agreements covering 16.3 million workers. The employees agreed to a worksheet between 35 and 40 hours and a minimum wage from 12 to 15 dollars per week. Also with the expectations not to employ anyone under 16 years of age. As history tells it took three rounds of Roosevelt attempting to influence the supreme court to approve (FLSA).

       The bonuses of raising the minimum wage are it could increase economic activity and spur job growth. The Economic Policy Institute stated that “a minimum wage increase from 8.05 to 10.10 would a sum of 22.1 billion net into the economy and create an estimate of 85,000 new jobs over a three-year time period.” The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago predicted that a 1.75 rise in federal wage would increase the average household spending 48 billion the next year. To the many Advantages of increasing the minimum wage one key advantage is it can reduce government spending on the “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by 6% or 4.6 billion.” Determined by the Economic policy Institute suggested that by increasing the minimum wage estimated that more than 1.7 million Americans would no longer be dependent on government assistance programs. Also it would take off 7.6 billion of  annual government spending on income-support programs. With that said it would hush up all the citizens that says everyone on “SNAP” sells their food stamps. Thirdly increasing the wage will reduce the income equality, out of the 34 organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries, the united states has one of the highest levels of income inequality. In 2012 the richest 1% of the US population earned 22.38% of the nations total pre-tax income resulting in the widest gap between the rich and the poor since the 1920s. The increase in minimum wage will have a ripple effect on the ones that make slightly above the minimum wage. Researchers at Brooking institution found that increasing the minimum wage would result in higher wages not only for 3.7 millions workers who make up  to 150% of the federal minimum wage. Even researchers at the federal minimum wages for 28 million Americans, about nine million of those due to the ripple effect. One of the best advantages of increasing the minimum wage is it will increase worker productivity  and reduce employee turnover. Meaning that more people will be willing to work an less people will not come into work. A 2014 University of California at Berkeley study found "striking evidence that turnover rates for teens and restaurant workers fall substantially following a minimum wage increase." Lastly the current minimum wage is not high enough to allow people to afford everyday essentials which my family can relate too. According to a 2013 poll by Oxfam America, 66% of US workers earn less than 10 dollars an hour report that they “just meet” or “don’t even have enough to meet” their basic living expenses, and 50% say that they are frequently worried about affording basic necessities such as food” that will cause them to apply for government assistance. In the end the government will be taxed more than just raising the minimum wage. "The federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour represents less than half of a living wage for a single adult" and a worker supporting only himself or herself  would have to work 93 hours a week at the federal minimum wage in order to make ends meet or skip necessities like meals or medicine. Another cold hard fact is that raising it will lead to a healthier population and prevent premature deaths. This can change because if the mothers has more money to buy food for themselves, so they wont be hungry while carrying the baby. In 2014 human impact Partners study by Rajiv Bhatia, MD, found that raising the Californian minimum wage to 13 dollars an hour by 2017 would “significantly benefit health and well being.” It appeared that those earning a higher minimum wage would have enough to eat, be more likely to exercise, less likely to smoke, suffer from fewer emotional and psychological problems, and even prevent 389 premature deaths a year. A 2012 study by the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative (BARHII)found that minimum wage workers are more likely to report poor health, suffer from Chronic diseases, and be unable to afford balanced meals. The study found that policies that reduce poverty and raise the wages of low-income people can be excepted to significantly improve overall health and reduce health inequalities.