By Jon Mettus
Editor-in-Cheif
Canada, England, France, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Luxembourg and Belgium: all of these countries have a higher minimum wage than the United States, Luxembourg having the highest at $11.36 an hour. Currently the federal minimum wage in the United States is $7.25 per hour, but in President Obama’s first State of the Union address for his second term he proposed that the federal minimum wage be raised to $9.00 an hour, in stages by the end of 2015.
According to the White House website, “a full-time, minimum wage worker makes $14,500 a year.” That leaves the person below the poverty line and struggling to make ends meet.
Minimum wage needs to be raised to catch up with the rising cost of living and cost of goods. The current minimum hasn’t been changed since 2009. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in Jan. 2009 the average price for one gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $1.79 (The figures are in nominal dollars: not adjusted for inflation). In Jan. 2013 the price was $3.35.
Nothing has been done, as far as minimum wage is concerned, to account for the skyrocketing price of a simple necessity. Americans are becoming unable to buy the things they need.
Raising the minimum wage would put more money in the hands of low uncome Americans. Should the minimum wage be raised by $1.75, it would give a working family earning $20,000 – $30,000 a year, an extra $3,500 per year. That would be enough to cover the family’s spending on groceries for a year, spending on utilities for a year, spending on gas for a year, or six months of housing, according to the White House.
In total, the minimum wage has been raised 22 times, but that has been counteracted by inflation. Raising minimum wage to the President’s proposed amount would restore it to what its real value was in 1981, at the beginning of the Reagan administration.
Raising the minimum wage would be the United States putting value back into the lower and middle class workers. Currently America has a large gap in wealth — the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. An increase in the minimum would be a reward for hard work and would put some faith back into the American dream and the idea that you can start from the bottom and work your way up to the top.
Wages for 15 million workers would be boosted by the potential minimum wage change which would help them battle the poverty that plagues this country. Should the minimum wage be indexed as the President proposed, it would automatically adjust for inflation every year.
While raising the minimum wage would cause prices of some goods to increase and possibly lead to some firings, overall, its impact would be strengthening the middle class, which is key to improving the economy as a whole.
