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Minimum Wage In America Essay

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I really enjoyed reading all the stories in today’s chapters. There were a few areas of interest that seemed to show up in all three stories – such as immigrants being underpaid, abused, and facing racism. The subject I am mainly going to discuss in this response is minimum wage, not for the general population of U.S. citizens, but for illegal and undocumented immigrants. Abel tells the story of his travels from Guatemala to Mexico to America over the course of about 6 years. When reading his story, I noticed that all of his jobs had lower than the minimum wage. This was often the case for undocumented employees – as they were very easy to find and would work for any amount of money. Though the minimum wage nationwide was $3.80 in 1990 (U.S. Dept.) – when 18-year-old Abel …show more content…
They come here in the hopes of making a lot of money to send back home. It’s not to say that they don’t make a lot of money – according to Abel, “three dollars in Guatemala is a lot” (qtd. in Orner 124). I find that very upsetting – nobody should be suffering on minimum wage, that’s why America needs to “revise the minimum wage law to a “living wage” [to at least $15] so that it would support even costs including room and board, healthcare, and education” (Kamrany). This relates to today’s American society because we are coming up to our next Presidential election. Candidates like Bernie Sanders are fighting for raising the minimum wage, while others like Donald Trump are fighting to kick every illegal immigrant in American out. That being said, there are at least eleven million and counting undocumented immigrants who are currently residing in America, so “it is essential that they join the U.S. society as citizens and become acculturated rather than remain outside the American system of opportunity” (Kamrany). I think people should be more open to immigrant

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