Chris Miller Final Paper Guy Thorvaldsen 11/23/12 “Minimum Wages Should Be Raised”

With one of the worst recession’s in the past decade, I guarantee that almost every single person in this country has been impacted by it, state and federal leaders are focusing on getting this economy back on track and helping working families ends meet. Raising min. wage is a key strategy in the recovery of is this economy. By boosting the wages for the working class on which they are relying most on, will not only restore the consumer spending that powers our country but will help other small businesses grow along with the hard worker men and women working those jobs, and most Americans will be able to come out of debt.

Most Republicans and many Democrats oppose a rise in the minimum wage. Some economists believe it should be abolished altogether; in other words, businesses would be able to pay $1 or $7 per hour if they wanted, assuming they could find people to hire at the specified rate. According to the BLS In 2011, 73.9 million American workers age 16 and over were paid at hourly rates, representing 59.1 percent of all wage and salary workers. Among those paid by the hour, 1.7 million earned the exact minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. About 2.2million had wages below $7.25. 3.8 million workers with the wages at or below the federal level made up 5.2 percent of all hourly paid workers. There are 300 million people in the United States and approximately 80 million people get paid minimum wage, this just proves why people cant afford anything and live under the poverty line. The poverty line for one person is $11,000 a year. But if you trying to support a family of four its $24,000 a year; so for every person with a family living on minimum wage is living under the poverty line which causes crime, depression and multiple other factors that could affect the