Minimum Wage
If it was one thing I could change it would be minimum wage. As of today minimum wage is $7.25. Which translates to $15,080 for a full-time, year-round worker. The federal minimum wage was signed into law in 1938 by President Franklin Roosevelt, at the height of the Great Depression. Its stated purpose was to keep America’s workers out of poverty, and increase consumer purchasing power in order to stimulate the economy. At the federal level, the minimum wage was last increased on July 24, 2009, when it rose from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour, the last step of a three-step increase approved by Congress in 2007. However, before 2007, the minimum wage had been stuck at $5.15 per hour for ten years.
Raising the minimum wage right now is more important than ever. Minimum wage increases stimulate the economy by increasing consumer spending, without adding to state and federal budget deficits. Consumer spending drives 70 percent of the economy, and increasing demand is key for jumpstarting production and re-hiring. A raise in the minimum wage puts money into the pockets of low-income consumers, who immediately spend it at local businesses. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, which would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, would generate $22 billion in new economic activity in communities across the country. Strengthening the minimum wage can help build a sustainable economic recovery – without increasing costs for taxpayers.
No one can live on the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. A figure that hasn't moved a penny since 2009. Minimum wage workers are no longer kids flipping burgers in the summer for some spending money. These are people trying to live. Many of them are trying to support themselves and their families, and they can't do it on $7.25 an hour. No one can. An hourly wage of $7.25 works out to $290 a week and $15,080 a year. Before taxes, and without a single day off...