Argumentative Essay: The Minimum Wage Debate

The minimum wage debate, a debated movement that has gained a lot of traction in the recent years; however, it wasn’t always like that. The first federal minimum wage laws were passed in 1983 by the then elected President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, known as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) mandating that employers pay workers a heaping $0.25 cents an hour. This law not only set minimum wage laws in place it also covered things such as youth employment standards, overtime pay, and the standards for government employees amongst other things. A huge step for the American economy and social activism in a time when child labor was rampant, working conditions were terrible, and employers could opt out from paying a person

In today’s society many people view money as the ultimate goal where it can buy everything even happiness, and with some truth money can get you almost anything you desire in life. Nonetheless, with the aspect of wanting more, more, more has blinded some to seeing that if we had more money all of problems in the United States concerning poverty would be solved. With many states, such as New York, California, and Washington D.C opting for mandated statewide $15.00 dollar an hour, the economic stress might be too much for small business owners forcing them to close down, while bigger companies outsource their business into other states where they are not mandated to pay a higher price. Star Parker, a writer for the Daily Press, writes in his article “Minimum wage won’t benefit us: From the Right” stating that why only $15? Why not make it $20, $30, $50? (Parker). So why stop at $15? If more money means bringing people out of poverty then raise the minimum wage to however high it needs to be get people out of poverty,

With the pursuit of higher education many people see it as a pathway to more money. Now, how many of those students will stay and pursue higher education if job opportunities that pay $15.00 dollars and hour with the chance of it going up to $20.00 or even $30.00 dollars an hour in the near future? One’s guess is as good as another, but it would suffice to say not many. For some people, money is the main reason they would opt to pursue higher education rather than working right out of high school. However if money right out of high school is already good, many would rather just work than pursue that education. If this was to continue and become a trend where money is readily available without any form of higher education then there would be no benefit in actually going into education other then it being someone’s lifelong dream. Then the next Einstein could be working behind a counter, flipping burgers, at a McDonalds