Should Minimum Wage Be Abolished Essay

Almost everyone will have to work at some point in their lives or at least live in a household where other members work as a way to afford basic living standards. That implicitly, or even explicitly, accounts receiving wages and attempting to make a living, which includes paying bills, buying food and paying for education, for example. The Federal Minimum Wage came in to existence in 1938 as President Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act. The main purpose of this Act was to protect workers from the limited wages and long work journeys, especially during the Great Depression. Therefore, this resulted in the restriction of child labor, the minimum hourly wage at the time was set to 25 cents and the maximum workweek was set at 44 hours (Department of Labor). Over the

This shows that unlike many may think, raising the minimum wage would not be harmful to the US economy. It is natural that as workers earn higher wages, they are more likely to spend as consumers, consequently increasing demand and allowing the economy to flow. People also often make the assumption that a higher wage would provoke higher unemployment rates, however research finds that raising the minimum wage does not result in job losses, “even during periods when the unemployment rate is high.” In addition, most of the states noticed a slight decrease in their unemployment rate a year after the raise in minimum wage (American Progress Action). An article from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago claims that if the federal rate was to increase by $1.25, it would aggregate household spending by $48 billion as well as increase the level of GDP by up to 0.3 percent (Chicago Fed). Thus, it is clear that a higher income due to an increase in the minimum wage would not have significant effects on employment, that being job