1938 the United States Congress enacted the Fair Labor Standards Act. Most jobs in the United States are regulated by this act for minimum wage, hourly regulations, and overtime rates. The Federal Minimum wage, enabled by the Fair Labor Standards Act, in the United States is $7.25. Although this is the minimum wage, 29 states and Washington D.C have a higher minimum wage than the federal minimum wage (State Minimum Wage). Small businesses and large corporations alike, along with the economy, would be affected by the rise of minimum wage. Each different municipality needs its own minimum wage for everyone to benefit. The minimum wage needs to change from federal jurisdiction to local government.
As of right now, the federal minimum wage is an hourly wage floor to protect the lives of millions. This is meant to be the lowest legal amount a company can pay someone that is not exempt from federal minimum wage. It is meant to be able to be the legal minimum someone can live off of working for forty hours a week. In some cases, the minimum wage is not doing its job. The minimum wage needs to be determined according to the price of living in that municipality. In some cases $7.25 is what it is, the least you need to be paid to live off of, in other cases $7.25 does not touch living cost such as New York City or Washington D.C.
The President, the House of Representatives, and the Senate have all proposed a new solutions to raise the minimum wage, in some cases raise the minimum wage to as much as $15.00 an hour. Berkeley City Council in California is considering a hike to $19 an hour by the year 2020. In just four years they will have raised their minimum wage from the now $12.53 to $19 in a shorter amount of time than the federal minimum wage has not changed at all. Having this big of a leap will destroy small businesses and even hurt a lot of large corporations as well. Small business make up a large part of our job market; according to the small business association small business make up 99.7 percent of U.S employer firms, back in 2010 there were 27.9 million small businesses in the United States (citation). As many jobs as small businesses create, without small businesses there will surely be a decline in job availability. The workers that will be affected by the small business getting rid of employees due to the rise in the wage floor are the people that the minimum wage is trying to help, the low skilled and the less educated. The biggest problem is that the small business will only be able to pay everyone minimum wage. A common misconception with raising the minimum wage is more money brings in more money. That’s not the case at all; the small businesses have a certain budget for wages that when they are bombarded with such a large increase they have to take action. The national small business association said, “An increase in wage for one set of workers can lead to a false sense of entitlement that the wages for all workers should be increased, which is simply not sustainable for many small businesses.” (nsla.gov). The mom and pop shops everyone knows and loves will soon be charging fifteen dollars for a cheeseburger to pay for their least productive workers. The number of people that are working at the minimum wage or lower has actually declined according to the U.S bureau of labor statistics. “The percentage of hourly paid workers earning the prevailing federal minimum wage or less declined from 4.3 percent in 2013 to 3.9 percent in 2014.” Large companies such as McDonald’s could also cut …show more content…
Even the 2016 presidential election has brought light to the situation. JEB Bush has been said to wanting to eliminate the federal minimum wage and leaving the wage up to the private sector, Donald Trump on the other hand wants to leave the minimum wage where it is. The federal minimum wage needs to be eliminated and left to the municipality to decide what their cost of living is. That is the only way the minimum wage will effectively help the workers it is created to
As of right now, the federal minimum wage is an hourly wage floor to protect the lives of millions. This is meant to be the lowest legal amount a company can pay someone that is not exempt from federal minimum wage. It is meant to be able to be the legal minimum someone can live off of working for forty hours a week. In some cases, the minimum wage is not doing its job. The minimum wage needs to be determined according to the price of living in that municipality. In some cases $7.25 is what it is, the least you need to be paid to live off of, in other cases $7.25 does not touch living cost such as New York City or Washington D.C.
The President, the House of Representatives, and the Senate have all proposed a new solutions to raise the minimum wage, in some cases raise the minimum wage to as much as $15.00 an hour. Berkeley City Council in California is considering a hike to $19 an hour by the year 2020. In just four years they will have raised their minimum wage from the now $12.53 to $19 in a shorter amount of time than the federal minimum wage has not changed at all. Having this big of a leap will destroy small businesses and even hurt a lot of large corporations as well. Small business make up a large part of our job market; according to the small business association small business make up 99.7 percent of U.S employer firms, back in 2010 there were 27.9 million small businesses in the United States (citation). As many jobs as small businesses create, without small businesses there will surely be a decline in job availability. The workers that will be affected by the small business getting rid of employees due to the rise in the wage floor are the people that the minimum wage is trying to help, the low skilled and the less educated. The biggest problem is that the small business will only be able to pay everyone minimum wage. A common misconception with raising the minimum wage is more money brings in more money. That’s not the case at all; the small businesses have a certain budget for wages that when they are bombarded with such a large increase they have to take action. The national small business association said, “An increase in wage for one set of workers can lead to a false sense of entitlement that the wages for all workers should be increased, which is simply not sustainable for many small businesses.” (nsla.gov). The mom and pop shops everyone knows and loves will soon be charging fifteen dollars for a cheeseburger to pay for their least productive workers. The number of people that are working at the minimum wage or lower has actually declined according to the U.S bureau of labor statistics. “The percentage of hourly paid workers earning the prevailing federal minimum wage or less declined from 4.3 percent in 2013 to 3.9 percent in 2014.” Large companies such as McDonald’s could also cut …show more content…
Even the 2016 presidential election has brought light to the situation. JEB Bush has been said to wanting to eliminate the federal minimum wage and leaving the wage up to the private sector, Donald Trump on the other hand wants to leave the minimum wage where it is. The federal minimum wage needs to be eliminated and left to the municipality to decide what their cost of living is. That is the only way the minimum wage will effectively help the workers it is created to