Boosting the Minimum

Minimum wage has been a topic of argument for many years. People were angry with minimum wage being at $5.15 so they created efforts to raise it to $7.25 an hour. They wanted this so that it would raise the take home pay for millions of Americans around the nation. This raise helped many people in poverty-with the help of food stamps and Earned Income Tax Credit- out of poverty. In May 2007 Congress signed a large Iraq war funding bill that included the raise in minimum wage and gave small businesses tax breaks. Even with the new law in place, arguments still continue over the minimum wage. There are many supporters to the federal minimum age and many people that are against the minimum wage. Some supporters say that it will positively affect the lives of millions of American workers. It will give more people money that they can spend which will positively affect the economy and counter any negative effect from businesses raising prices to cover increased wages. Some of the people against minimum wage say that raising it is counterproductive. They say poverty only affects a small percentage of Americans and most of the people earning minimum wage are teenagers who aren't living in poverty anyway. Also, critics say that the market works best for the economy when the laws of supply and demand determine wages.

I feel that we should keep raising the minimum wage to increase the amount of disposable income that low-income families will have. Yes, teens are the majority of workforce earning minimum wage, but that will also give us teens more disposable income to spend to help out the economy and keep prices for products reasonable. People earning minimum wage are being paid that to keep them above the poverty threshold. That's the whole point of setting a minimum wage, but yet people that are only being paid minimum wage aren't even close to being above that line. Most are acutally below it. So, why is it that people being paid minimum wage have to be on multiple federal programs to become above that line? Why do they have to rely on food stamps and the EITC to get by every month. Not to mention if they have families to pay for as well. We need to continue to keep raising the minimum wage as the cost of living becomes higher because we don't want millions of our workforce to be in poverty and only a small percentage of high paid workers ruling the nation. Article at the New York Times on Minimum wage.

Putting Welfare to Work, All Things Being Unequal