Essay On Federal Minimum Wage

According to procon.org, the federal minimum wage was introduced in 1938 under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression. It was set at a quarter, which is about $4.11 in modern America today. The minimum wage has been increased twenty-two times by Congress; the most recent increase was in 2009 when it changed from $6.55 to $7.25. There are twenty-nine states, including Washington, D.C that has a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage. Around 2,561,000 workers earn the federal minimum wage or below. I am opposed to the federal minimum wage being increased, if it is increased it will inflate the prices for the products, unemployed many people, increase poverty, and if it does arise, what would the need for a college
The Economist stated in 2015 that "America as a whole is an outlier among advanced economies... one would expect America, where GDP per person is $53,000, to pay a minimum wage around $12 an hour. That would mean a raise of about 65% for Americans earning the minimum pay rate," according to procon.org. If there was an increase like that then the teenagers and young adults may be shut out the workforce.
Increasing the minimum would have a ripple effect, raising the incomes of people who make slightly above the minimum wage, Melissa S. Kearney, PhD, and Benjamin Harris, PhD, of the Brookings Institution found that increasing the minimum wage would result in higher wages not only for the 3.7 million people earning minimum wage, but also for up to 35 million workers who make up to 150% of the federal minimum wage. If the minimum wage increased, the companies may use more computers and robots to replace service