Should Minimum Wage Be Raised - 1337 Words

U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has said, â€Å"It is a national disgrace that millions of full-time workers are living in poverty and millions more are forced to work two or three jobs just to pay their bills† (Wolf 1). Sanders has said this frequently and is referring to the drastic amount of Americans who are currently struggling, despite already having a job. The issue of whether or not to raise the minimum wage in America has been a widely discussed topic for years. Minimum wage refers to the smallest amount of money a worker can legally be paid in the U.S. It was first signed into law in 1938 by President Franklin Roosevelt in order to keep workers out of poverty and as it stands, the current federal minimum wage in†¦show more content†¦This quote suggests that an important factor of a booming economy is the worker. A simple fact is that the more the worker makes, the more goes into the economy. Moreover, in President Obama’s State o f the Union address back in 2013, he notes that raising the minimum wage means that â€Å"for businesses across the country, it would mean customers with more money in their pockets† (Luhby 1). This proposes that an increase in the minimum wage helps businesses as well as the worker. As of right now, American people whose sole income is through a minimum wage salary can barely afford to pay for basic needs such as groceries and rent. With not a dollar to spare, every single penny of their already small paycheck goes towards these basic necessities. With an increase in their salary, the more Americans making minimum wage can spend on things outside of their basic necessities, which would in turn help out businesses in America and contribute the economy of the country as a whole. A second reason why the minimum wage needs to be increased is that it would help working-class families. When people in America think of the average minimum wage worker, they think of a teenager. Contr ary to this widely held belief, this is not the case of modern day America. According to an infographic released by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit that researches economic