Minimum Wage Should Be Raised - Here's Why

The concept of the federal minimum wage is an obvious one: in an effort to ensure that workers are not taken advantage of by their companies, the U.S. government set a minimum guarantee for hourly pay. If you get paid less, either the state or federal government will step in and act on your behalf.

Well, sort of. There are exceptions when it is permissible for an employer to pay employees less than minimum wage, like with people who make tips.

Currently, the federal minimum wage is set at $7.25 per hour. While this is the minimum wage set by the federal government, states can set their own local minimum wage laws. It’s a little complicated, but all you need to know is that you get to choose whatever’s higher: the federal minimum wage, or the minimum wage in your state.

It’s great that the government steps in to defend the rights of workers, but is $7.25 enough? Let’s follow the numbers. If you’re getting paid the federal minimum wage in a full-time job, working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, you’ll make just over $15,000. And that’s before taxes.

In 2021, it is damn near impossible to make it on $15,000 a year.

And yet, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 1.1 million workers making minimum wage or below. That’s 1.1 million people who have to figure out how to make ends meet with $15,000 a year.

This is a systematic problem. I know that most people say the great equalizer is education. To be frank: the great equalizer is money. Yeah, if you weren’t born into privilege, a Harvard degree helps even the playing field. Sure. But you’re kidding yourself if you don’t see how intertwined the education system is with finance. Hello? The admissions scandal? Lori Loughlin?

If you’re working a minimum wage job, it’s really hard to scrape up the cash to take a class or put in the start-up costs that you might need to secure a higher paying job. So it’s much harder for people working for minimum wage to “climb the ladder” and grow some wealth.

And who are these workers? According to the Economic Policy Institute “minimum wage workers, and low-wage workers generally, are disproportionately women and people of color.”

If we want to remedy this systematic problem, something has to change. I argue that raising the minimum wage is one of the best paths forward.

However, there are people who believe that the minimum wage should not be raised. They argue that raising the minimum wage would lead to inflation. And/or, they argue that if the minimum wage was raised, companies would not be able to afford to employ as many hourly workers, and thus, a higher minimum wage would lead to job losses. To be fair to this argument, there is some correlation there. California and New York, two of the states with the highest rate of minimum wage, have the two of the highest unemployment rates.

On the issue of equality, some argue that raising the minimum wage is not the most focused way to help minority communities. Because rising tides lift all boats, not only would women and people of color working hourly jobs get a pay boost, all hourly workers would— including other groups that may not need it. Like, a teenager working part-time who is still financially dependent on his parents but wants to save up for a Playstation.

In fact, the Economic Policy Institute estimates that 1 in 10 of the people benefitting from a $15 minimum wage are teenagers.

So those are the heavy-hitter arguments for the minimum wage nay-sayers.

Here’s what I have to say to them. Let’s rewind.

On the point of minimum wage hurting the economy: not to dunk on you, but you’re wrong. If people make more money, they can spend more money, and that helps the economy. If you’re a government representative and you’re saying that it hurts the economy when people have spending power, then why’d you pass THREE rounds of stimulus checks?

Not to SLAM-dunk on you, but I’m going to quote HQ here: the Congressional Budget Office estimated raising the minimum wage to $15 from its current level of $7.25 could cost 1.3 million jobs, while increasing wages for 17 million workers.

Of course, we don’t want to lose any jobs, but this legislation wouldn’t exist in a vacuum. There can be accompanying legislation that creates jobs for these 1.3 million workers who are at-risk. We can think out of the box here, folks; especially when we’re talking about improving the lives of 17 million people. Furthermore, when 17 million people have more take-home pay, they will spend more money at local businesses that then need to hire more people.

On the point of not wanting to give teenagers a living wage - okay, you’re clearly speaking from an ivory tower if your impression of a teenager is someone who’s blowing their paychecks on booze and Dogecoin; you’re clearly not thinking of all the teenagers who are working to support their parents and families. Fine.

But even though it’s estimated that 1 in 10 of the people that would benefit from a higher minimum wage are teenagers, the average age of workers who would benefit from a minimum wage boost is 35. 35! And 59% of those people are women.

You should care about this issue even if you're making more than minimum wage and are happy with your salary. No matter what you make, you can benefit from a minimum wage boost, because you’d be living within a healthier and stronger economy. Who doesn't want that?

xo,