Essay On Minimum Wage

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The Minimum Wage Should Be Increased In 2015, 78.2 million workers were paid at hourly rates. Which makes up 58.5 percent of all the wages and salary workers in the United States. Amongst those 870,000 workers earned exactly $7.25 per hour. The average household earns about $15,080 annually for a full- time minimum wage worker. ("Increasing the Minimum Wage: Pros & Cons") Minimum wage is the lowest wage that employers can legally pay their employees. The United States minimum wage was initially set at $0.25 per hour by The Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938. ("UC Davis Center for Poverty Research"). Due to a drastic increase to the cost of living since the early 1900s, it has then been increased to $7.25 an hour. The minimum wage should be …show more content…

Affording everyday essentials is crucial to human life. Lacking these essentials can cause many problems including homelessness. The current minimum wage is the root of these problems. With prices continuously on the rise, it is becoming more difficult to sustain life. People who earn the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour cannot find an affordable place to live anywhere in the United States, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, therefore the homeless population will continue to increase. The report found that to afford a one bedroom apartment at the average fair market rate without disbursing more than 30 percent of their income, someone must earn at least $16.25 an hour.”Stagnant wages have increasingly come into conflict with rising rent prices for most Americans. The share of renters paying more than half their income for housing has doubled since 1960.”This problem is due to surging rental demand mixed with a shortage of new units. “Between 2005 and 2014, there was an increase of 7.9 million renters, but only 2.2 million new units were added.” Furthermore, this will lead to an increase of price and demand which means that landlords can Consequently charge more for rent due to the limited amount of units that were added. ("Increasing the Minimum Wage: Pros &

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