Minimum Wage: Should It Vary Across the United States?

For many years there has been a debate about what the minimum wage rate should be. As inflation has risen through the years, minimum wage has not. Personally I believe minimum should not be set for one rate for the whole country. Depending on where you reside in the United States determines your cost of living. It is quite simple, the cost of living in New York City is a lot higher than the cost of living in Cleveland, TN. Thus, the rate of minimum wage in New York City should be higher than the rate in Cleveland.
The thought that minimum wage should rise as inflation has risen and as productivity increases is a good thought. According to an article on the Huffington Post, “minimum wage should have reached $21.72 an hour in 2012 if it kept up with increases in worker productivity”. The article also stated had

minimum wage kept up with inflation, low-wage workers should be making a minimum of $10.52 an hour. I believe that people are underpaid for what the cost of many necessities are today. However, once again, the price of necessities in certain parts of the country are higher than in other parts of the country. Raising minimum wage to $10.52 would be a great rate in certain parts of the country, but in other parts of the country this would still be too low. However, had the minimum wage raised to $21.72 an hour with the rise of productivity, many people would make enough money to live.
Another article from Forbes Magazine states that we should “see what employers are willing to pay in various areas for various types and skill levels of labor”. I agree with this statement because depending on where someone lives should determine the minimum wage in that area. Also, the skills and labor that is required by the job should determine how much someone is paid. If someone only has to know how to run a computer then they should be paid less than someone who has to know how to run big machinery and do manual labor. Another great point made by this article was if you “raise minimum wages too high, you’ll eventually choke off employment, harming the very people that the policy is intended to help”. This would then lead to higher unemployment rates and then more people would be harmed by not having a job at all rather than just not making as much money as they need to survive. Smaller cities may not be able to pay as high of a minimum wage as the bigger cities would be able to pay. However, the cost of living in the smaller cities would be a lot lower than the cost of living in the bigger cities.
The Department of Labor released some minimum wage myths with the truth to each of the myths. One myth is that the minimum wage will stay the same if the Congress does not change it. The Congress does set the minimum wage, but from the moment the minimum wage is set, the value of the new wage begins to fall. Why is this? The cost of living is always on the rise, thus the minimum wage cannot stay the same for a long period of time. Another myth is that the minimum goes up automatically on its own as prices increase. The national minimum wage requires approval by Congress and the President. However, some states have issued rules in recent years so that the minimum wage goes up as inflation occurs.
Overall, I feel there should not be a national minimum wage, but that the minimum wage should be determined by several factors.

The first factor is where you reside. In simpler terms, if you live in a city where the cost of living is high then the minimum wage should be higher than if you live in a city with a lower cost of living. The second factor to determine the minimum wage should be what skills and labor are required. The simpler jobs that require no education and minimal labor should have a lower minimum wage than jobs that require an education and more labor, such as manual labor. However, in the end inflation should also affect what the minimum wage should be. A state or city should still have to raise their minimum wage as inflation goes up. It should not be set and left at that rate for many years. The minimum wage should be reconsidered at least every other year. The national minimum wage should be abolished and each state should set the minimum wage based upon the cost of living and the skills required for each job. Employers should have some say as to what is reasonable for the skills and labor required for a specific job in that said

area.