Minimum Wage - 6018 Words

History of the Minimum Wage  · 1938 -- The minimum wage was first enacted into law as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938. The original minimum wage applied to workers engaged in interstate commerce and the production of goods for interstate commerce. In 1938, this applied to roughly 11.0 million workers out of a total of 54.9 million workers. The minimum wage was set at $0.25 per hour.  · 1961 -- Amendments to the minimum wage law extend coverage primarily to employees in large retail and service trades as well as local transit, construction, and gasoline service station employees.  · 1966 -- Amendments to the minimum wage law extend coverage to state and local government employees of hospitals, nursing homes, and†¦show more content†¦Many economists believe that the minimum wage raises the wages of middle-class teens while doing little to help the working poor get out of poverty. Edward Gramlich (1976) found that any income gains among teenagers resulting from the minimum wage are about evenly split between high-income and low-income families. The vast majority of minimum wage workers are not the primary wage earner in a poor family; Richard Burkhauser and T. Aldrich Finegan (1989) estimated that in the mid-1980s only 7 percent of low-wage workers were heads of families living in poverty. Burkhauser, Kenneth Couch and David Wittenberg (1996) found that almost 40 percent of all workers directly affected by the minimum wage increases in 1990 and 1991 were from families in the top half of the income distribution, with 4 percent of affected workers in t he top decile. The minimum wage does have the potential to raise the incomes of some poor households, particularly those headed by women. About 40 percent of poor adults worked in 1994, and low-wage workers contribute about one-half of household earnings. Over one-fourth of all workers in the lowest family income decile were affected by the 1990 and 1991 federal minimum wage increases, according to Burkhauser, Couch and Wittenberg. Because women tend to have lower earnings than men, working women are more likely to be in poverty. In 1987, the earnings of nearly 18 percent of working female householdShow MoreRelatedMinimum Wage And The Wage916 Words   |  4 PagesEliminate the Minimum Wage Darity Has described minimum wage as: â€Å"Minimum-wage legislation has been to improve the terms of employment of the least-fortunate wage earners.† (Darity) Since the beginning of minimum wage laws in 1270 France the intentions of minimum wage legislation has been good. The idea is that a worker is worth a certain amount regardless of the work they are able to do. One can see how this could create inefficiencies in an economy. The law was meant to help poor families.Read MoreMinimum Wage And The Wage Essay1208 Words   |  5 Pages Minimum wage requires paying every employee a specific wage regardless of the employee productivity. It is the responsibility of the government to set the minimum wage. To understand this, a biology analogy can be used: some animals are stronger compared to others. In economic perspective, some people are relatively unable to deliver compared to others. Among them include, disabled, unskilled, and the youth. Due to their low productivity, th ey are entitled lower wages corresponding to their effortsRead MoreMinimum Wage And The Wage Essay1728 Words   |  7 PagesRoyer Political Science 120 7 November 2016 Increase Minimum Wage Introduction The United States’ minimum wage has been a concerning issue amongst the low wage earners because of the amount they earn is not enough for them to live on their own. Therefore causing the citizens who earn minimum wage to have an impossible time finding a place to stay and expenses for daily survival. Increasing the minimum wage will solve the issues that the minimum wage earners make, thus increasing the chances of survivalRead MoreThe Wage Is The Minimum Wage1098 Words   |  5 PagesEnglish 9 6/5/16 â€Å"The minimum wage is the minimum hourly wage an employer can pay an employee for work. Currently, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour (part of the Fair Labor Standards Act) and some states and cities have raised their minimum wage even higher than that.† minimum wage was first introduced during the great depression in 1930s. Before it was introduced thousands of people were forced to work in horrible conditions for pennies a week. Early attempts on minimum wage was ruled unconstitutionalRead MoreMinimum Wage And The Wage1437 Words   |  6 Pages Minimum wage was established on October 24, 1938 after President Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act. (Grossman) Minimum wage was set to allow working class citizens an opportunity to work a reasonable amount of hours for pay that would enable individuals to maintain a minimal quality life. In today’s economics minimum wage is used as a price control or price floor that the government enforces. A price floor is a minimum price for a product or service above the market’s equilibrium priceRead MoreMinimum Wage And The Wage1269 Words   |  6 PagesMinimum Wage There are a lot of people around the world who struggle with money and a satisfactory way of life. Whether they be in the United States or across the globe, there is a standard minimum wage set for the working class of their country. In the Unites States, there is a federal minimum wage of seven dollars and twenty five cents per hour worked. Almost every state has another set minimum wage, which typically is a little higher than the federal minimum wage, but it cannot be lower thanRead MoreThe Wage Of The Minimum Wage871 Words   |  4 PagesWith the presidential elections right around the corner policy on minimum wage has come up for debate once again. William Hoar from The New American argues in his article â€Å"Misguided minimum wage mandate† that raising the minimum wage will only result in loss of jobs. According to the editorial board at USA Today, â€Å" inflation adjusted income of the top 1 percent has grown by 58 percent and the remaining 99 percent has only gr own by 6.4 percent†. They then state that a raise to 15 dollars an hour onlyRead MoreMinimum Wage863 Words   |  4 PagesMinimum wage is a controversial topic because everybody wants more. People want more money and some think that just increasing minimum wage can increase more money that they get. However, this is far from the truth as sometimes employers can’t pay their employers more than minimum wage. Not to mention that if the minimum wage goes up so does the price of everything else in order to adjust for the new price. So essentially increasing the wage majorly does nothing except maybe lower the value of yourRead MoreMinimum Wage and Its Implications763 Words   |  3 PagesMinimum wage affects everyone. The current minimum wage is at $7.25 and President Obama announced that he wished to see a change in the minimum wage, he wants to raise the hourly wage to $10.10. A rise in the income of those who are employed will also raise the cost of hiring unskilled lab or and can potentially reduce the number of people hired by businesses. Also, if minimum wage is raised then the price of the products that the companies are making might increase which will continue the cycle ofRead MoreMinimum Wage And The Wage1639 Words   |  7 PagesMinimum wage is one of the many microeconomic policies that serve to correct imbalance in the economy. It is defined as the lowest amount of remuneration required of an employer to pay his employees during a given period of work. There exist different laws in different states that can fix the minimum wage policy. A current economic issue is minimum wage, or specifically, its pertinence to social inequality. Many sectors of society would be affected by changes in this policy. Minimum wage relies on