Minimum Wage In America

those who are responsible for the poverty many Americans live. The government must determine how much to increase the minimum wage; if they decide to increase it at all. Leading the struggle for increased minimum wages are the fast food workers of America, each with their own personal stories of struggle and reasons they must depend on a food service job, paying these meager wages, to provide for their family. As David Neumark states, “Since its enactment, there has been widespread debate about the merits of minimum wage laws, along with numerous efforts to evaluate their economic effects” (55). I seek to show the value of a significant minimum wage increase and the effects it will have, not only on fast food worker’s lives, but the good it could have on the US economy. Although there are those out there that would argue that the minimum wage increase would cause more damage to our economy; I believe

And on April 1, 1991, the minimum wage hit an all-time high of $4.25 an hour as explained by Lawrence Katz (6). In his findings regarding his article, Lawrence Katz states that "the evidence on employment and price changes does not seem consistent with a conventional view of the effects of increases in a binding minimum wage” (20). By this, Katz is trying to state that even though the minimum wage increased in the early 1990s, the increase had an adverse effect in which employment to the fast food industry increased in Texas, where he conducted his research. He also concluded that the changing in prices in the businesses he researched were not directly associated the minimum wage increase. Looking back at this research, it seems as though the constant increases in the minimum wage shows how strong our economy has become. I believe that the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour for the past 7 years with no increase has had a negative effect on the workers in the fast food