Minimum Wage Laws in America As cost of living continues to rise across the United States, America’s minimum wage remains the same. With a gallon of milk closing around four dollars and federal minimum wage at $7.25, one can understand how the minimum wage can be troublesome for our working class Americans. States such as California, New York, and New Jersey have some of the highest food and rental cost in the country. We must find the right balance and compensate for inflation, otherwise our lower class citizens will keep on struggling to support their families and themselves. With the cost of gas, food and utilities rising our low wage workers simply cannot keep up. According to Angelo Amador, U.S National Restaurant Association, 9 out of 10 supervisors start at these relatively low wages, and later on continue to move up the ladder and secure more well paid positons. When a full time mother or father has to …show more content…
Los Angeles is just one of many American cities using a rise in the minimum wage to try to address poverty and inequality. State and local governments are acting where the federal government has not. Just over half of American states have legal minimum wage rates above the federal minimum, which has stood at $7.25 an hour since 2009 (The Data Team, 2015). The big question with minimum wage is what should it be raised to? Well clearly some states should differ from others because the cost of living is much higher in states like New York versus a state like Virginia. A dramatic increase to 15.00 minimum wage is risky, and could prevent more problems, so the trick is finding the right balance to boost the economy and not create more job loss for Americans. Alan B Krueger