In this blog I will be discussing the primary issue in question, should the federal minimum wage be increased to fifteen dollars an hour? The minimum wage rate can be defined as the lowest hourly pay that can be awarded to workers. This is also sometimes called the pay floor.
When examining the wage issues in the United States, in theory a raise in the federal minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour would positively benefit the lower class or minimum wage workers. As many people throughout America work at support their families through waged work an increase in pay/hour will allow for people working minimum wage jobs to better support themselves and their families.
That being said, the current federal minimum wage in the United States is approximately $7.25, raising it to 15 dollars would be nearly doubling the fees of workers. This would cause a relatively large loss of jobs for those who are at the lower end of the wage spectrum, as large corporations will not be able to/willing to employ the same number of employees paying double the amount in salary. This loss in jobs would hit young adults and students the hardest.
According to the United States’ congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act in 2009 establishing that non tipped employees are paid roughly seven dollars. Although President Barrack Obama proposed the increase of a federal minimum wage in 2014 from $7.25 to $10.10. He claimed that this wage increase would not reduce the number of available jobs while still improving the economy in the United States, the government did not budge on this move.
An opposing viewpoint challenges this proposition by stating that the wage increase would put nearly 500,000 people out of work, as seen in the report from the Congressional Budget Office.
The FLSA also known as the Fair Labor Standards Act determines the minimum wage for the employees in both the public and private sectors. There is a varying minimum wage rate between the United States while many states like Wisconsin and Wyoming choose to follow the federal minimum wage rate states such as Arizona, California and Washington pay anywhere from $12.00 to $13.50. Approximately 29 out of the 50 states in America have a higher minimum wage than the federal rate.
The Democratic party believes in battling to raise the minimum wage to $15 but a centrist bill that institutes regional minimum wage stands as a roadblock. The United States’ Senate is Republican controlled.
I believe that prior to introducing a jump in wages that is nearly double what it is today, a slower steadier increase would be much more beneficial to the job market and will pass better in senate. If following Obama’s proposal have the federal minimum wage to around ten dollars by 2022 and then have a goal by 2025 for it to reach 15 dollars. This would allow analysists to examine how the increase in wages is affecting the economy and the job market before committing to a 15-dollar wage.
References: https://journalistsresource.org/studies/economics/federal-minimum-wage-research/
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/2018-19-federal-state-minimum-wage-rates-2061043
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Labor_Standards_Act_of_1938
Gitika Sachdev's Blog 
2 replies on “Should we increase the minimum wage to $15/hour?”
Hi Gitika,
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post! The debate of raising the minimum wage to $15/hour in the US is certainly an important one. I initially assumed you were going to blog about raising the minimum wage in Ontario, since it is also such a big issue here. It would definitely make more sense to raise it to $15 here rather than in the US. This is due to the fact that it is already at $14, and an additional dollar per hour would make a difference for those struggling to make ends meet. However, in the US, increasing the minimum wage to $15 would be a drastic adjustment for employers. It would be unrealistic to expect employers to start paying their employees double what they currently do. That is why minimum wages tend to increase gradually over long periods of time.
Great blog!
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Hi Yasmin,
The article i chose focused mainly on the United States as they have yet to make such a transition to a higher minimum wage. That being said while I was researching the topic I came across many very similar issues when Ontario was planning to raise their rate to 14/hour. That being said you’re right the shift from 14 – 15 dollars will not heavily impact the economy in Ontario.
Thank you for your feedback!
Gitika
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