Raising Minimum Wage Essay

The Federal minimum, as it sits, is $7.25 per hour. This wage is far too low, as it is impossible for a person to support themselves without outside assistance on this wage. Currently, the minimum wage in the U.S. is not a livable wage, so it must be raised. According to the Economic Policy Institute, a minimum wage adjusted to a living wage in the U.S. would be $10.10 per hour. This would return the minimum wage, adjusted for inflation, to roughly the same rate as in the 1960s. The study by the Economic Policy Institute found that by raising the minimum wage in a series of increments as proposed by Senator Tom Harkin and Representative George Miller in the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 that “an increase to $10.10 would either directly or

Many opponents to raising the minimum wage might protest that those working a minimum wage job are often teenagers without anyone to support, the study by the Economic Policy Institute has found that perhaps those who benefit most from a raise in the minimum wage are the children of minimum wage workers. The study states that, “The workers who would receive a raise do not fit the stereotypes of low-wage workers: Among affected workers, the average age is 35 years old, nearly 88 percent are at least 20 years old, and more than a third (34.5 percent) are at least 40 years old. Of affected workers, about 54 percent work full time, about 69 percent come from families with family incomes less than $60,000, and more than a quarter have children. The average affected worker earns half of his or her family’s total income,” (Cooper). The image of a minimum wage worker is very skewed by opponents of a raise in the minimum wage. In today’s world, the minimum wage worker is no longer only the teenager flipping burgers, but also the mother and father who wish to see their child