Raising the minimum wage to $15/hour is long overdue.  The federal minimum wage was last raised to $7.25 fifteen years ago by Obama in 2009.  Research by the Economic Policy Institute suggests that if we adjusted the current minimum wage for inflation, workers should be paid $15-17 per hour.  If we raised the wage to $15, we could improve the lives of 32 million American workers.  This is 21% of the U.S. labor force!  We could provide $107 billion in extra wages that would average a raise of $3,300 a year per person. 
    When Franklin Delano Roosevelt set the first minimum wage in 1938, he set us on a path for the standard of living that we have today.  But the wage must be regularly adjusted for inflation, or the law loses its meaning.  Since the 1940s, the minimum wage had been adjusted at least once a decade.  Sometimes, it was adjusted for inflation several years in a row.  Some European countries adjust the minimum wage every year! And yet we have let our minimum wage lapse for the longest time in the last 100 years.  We have had the highest inflation in decades, but we still expect hardworking families to pay their bills without any increase to their pay.  It’s becoming impossible for families to keep up.  Several studies show that the economy improves when we raise the minimum wage.  Hillary Clinton noted that times when her husband raised the minimum wage, there wasn't real price increases and the economy was given a boost.
    Adam Smith is considered one of the founders of modern capitalism.  He wrote the Wealth of Nations.  To paraphrase, he stated that if a man does not earn enough to support his family, then workers may die out within a generation.  We are finding out that this is true.  Many workers are not having kids because they can’t afford them.  Many fulltime workers require supplemental benefits such as food stamps.  We need to do better!  
    Currently, we have a Raise the Wage Act that is being considered.  We need to encourage all our elected officials that it is time to take action!