“Have you ever worked a minimum wage job, which is $7.25 an hour, and was able to cover all of your personal expenses?”

“Do you even know why minimum wage was even created?”

“Do you even know what the purpose of having minimum wage?”

According to law.cornell.edu, the minimum wage was designed to create a minimum standard of living to protect the health and well-being of employees. The federal minimum wage was introduced in 1938 during the Great Depression under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was initially set at $0.25 per hour and has been increased by Congress 22 times, most recently in 2009 when it went from $6.55 to $7.25 an hour.

“Ok, now what some people will consider the boring part is over. Let’s get into the main point of this topic, which is minimum wage needs to be increased again.”

“Let’s be honest $7.25 an hour is too low for anyone to live on, and a higher minimum wage will help create jobs and grow the economy. Now let’s evaluate the pros of minimum wage being increased.”

1. Raising the minimum wage would increase economic activity and spur job growth.
· The Economic Policy Institute stated that a minimum wage increase from the current rate of $7.25 an hour to $10.10 would inject $22.1 billion net into the economy and create about 85,000 new jobs over a three-year phase-in period.

2. Increasing the minimum wage would reduce poverty.
· According to a 2014 Congressional Budget Office report, increasing the minimum wage to $9.00 would lift 300,000 people out of poverty, and an increase to $10.10 would lift 900,000 people out of poverty.

3. A higher minimum wage would reduce government welfare spending.
· If low-income workers earned more money, their dependence on, and eligibility for, government benefits would decrease.

4. Increasing the minimum wage would reduce income inequality.
· A 2015 study found that the decrease in the inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage since the 1980s has been a contributor to America‘s high levels of inequality.

5. Raising the minimum wage would reduce crime.
· According to an April 2016 study by the Executive Office of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, “higher wages for low-income individuals reduce crime by providing viable and sustainable employment … raising the minimum wages to $12.00 by 2020 would result in a 3 to 5 percent crime decreases and a societal benefit of $8 to $17 billion dollars.”

6. Raising the minimum wage would lead to a healthier population and prevent premature death.
· A 2014 Human Impact Partners study by Rajiv Bhatia, MD, found that those earning a higher minimum wage would have enough to eat, be more likely to exercise, less likely to smoke, suffer from fewer emotional and psychological problems, and even prevent 389 premature deaths a year.

7. The current minimum wage is not high enough to allow people to afford everyday essentials.
· A 2015 report by the Alliance for a Just Society, found that “the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour represents less than half of a living wage for a single adult, and a worker supporting only himself would have to work 93 hours a week at the federal minimum wage in order to make ends meet, or skip necessities like meals or medicine.”

8. The current minimum wage is not high enough to allow people to afford housing.
· According to a 2015 report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a worker must earn at least $15.50 an hour to be able to afford to rent a “modest” one-bedroom apartment.

9. A minimum wage increase would help to reduce race and gender inequality.
· Women make up 63% of minimum wage workers.
· African Americans make up 17.7% of minimum wage earners.
· Hispanics make up 21.5% of minimum wage earners.

10. Raising the minimum wage would help reduce the federal deficit.
· It would lower spending on public assistance programs and increase tax revenue.

By: https://www.1voiceforall.com