In history, there are so many different laws that us as Americans can argue and say that we don’t like it, or ask ourselves “ Why is this law relevant to us as the people”. Mainly people ask themselves this question: “What role does the government play in making or enforcing this law”. That very question brings up multiple debates, and arguments everyday that leave us as the people thinking. Is America really the richer, smarter country? One law that many americans don’t agree with and have a strong opinion about is the price of Minimum Wage in the United States. Right now, Minimum Wage in the United States of America is at the price of $7.25. Some will argue whether or not this is a good price for us as americans.
Remember, the United States minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is federal. It is not state. For example. in the state of pennsylvania the minimum wage price for us is $7.25. In a state like Rhode Island, their minimum wage price is at $8.00 an hour. Why does some of the states minimum wage price differentiate from other states? Well there are plenty of reasons as to why the minimum wage rates differentiate throughout the United States of America. One reason is because different jobs have different set minimum wage prices. For example, A mcdonalds crew member might have a minimum wage price of $7.25. As opposed to a crew member at subway who starts out making a minimum wage price of $7.75. Any company can have a minimum wage of whatever amount they want as long as it doesn’t go underneath the United States set minimum wage of $7.25.
The issue with this minimum wage law is that the price is too low. Families that work at jobs that get paid minimum wage barely can afford to feed their families and buy the necessities in order to live. In the past, the price of minimum wage seemed to go up as prices for different items went up. Throughout the years of the great depression, an act was established in 1938. It was called the Fair labor stations act. Basically what it was is a document that stated the workers in the United States on average would get paid this amount of money per hour during their job shifts, or during their time doing a particular job. In the beginning of the act minimum wage started out at twenty five cents ($0.25). That price was set on October 24th, 1938. A year later on October 24th, 1939, the price of minimum wage in the United states of America was set to thirty cents ($0.30) an hour. The price of minimum wage went up another ten cents ($0.10) to a total of forty cents ($0.40) an hour. On March 1, 1956, American made history when the minimum wage price went up to a full dollar. It kept rising until July 24th, 2007 it hit $7.25.
The governments role in this issue should be rising the minimum wage price again. They should make it a price where us as americans can support ourselves, our family, and being able to live a worthy, comfortable lifestyle. When Obama took office in 2009, one of the things he wanted to get accomplished was making obamacare and welfare programs. But why use the governments taxes and extra money to give it away because americans aren’t making enough money because they are making almost not enough money to keep clothes on their backs. Make the minimum wage price as to where there will be no need to have these different benefits like food stamps, and snap, and wic. Not saying take away the welfare, and governments benefits for the physically challenged and disabled, but for the people that have the ability to get a job and have a job not to get those special benefits because they have a big family, or because they are a teen mom. Make it so that when they are working those long shifts at those jobs that they hate and only keep because they make little to no money in order to feed and support for their families.