Topic > Argumentative Essay on Minimum Wage - 706

Minimum wage legislation was first established on June 25, 1938 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he signed the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. “In its final form, the act applied to industries whose total employment represented only about one-fifth of the workforce. In these industries, it banned oppressive child labor and set the minimum hourly wage at 25 cents and the maximum workweek at 44 hours (USDOL, 2015).” Although the purpose of this legislation was to prohibit child labor and establish a minimum wage for an employee, the scope of the law exceeds this objective. Its overall goal was to create labor standards necessary for the health, efficiency, and well-being of workers. Nearly eighty years later, the minimum wage has grown exponentially, and it still hasn't. This legislation was not purely intended to cure poverty, but to level the playing field during the Great Depression. The economic stature of the United States of America has collapsed with hundreds of thousands of families out of work. With its last adjustment in 2007, the minimum wage gradually increased from $5.85 an hour to $6.55 an hour in 2008, to the current rate of $7.25 starting the following year. in 2009. Many argue that this rate should be higher; some feel much taller. There are currently 29 states that have already adopted a minimum wage that is higher than the federal minimum wage. Furthermore, there is already a resolution to increase the current minimum wage. Over a three-year period, the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 (HR 1010) would increase the national minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10, while also indexing future annual increases to inflation. As outlined in the Fair Minimum Wage Act fact sheet, “this increase would raise pay for at least 25 million workers nationwide, generating $35 billion in wage increases and compensation for working American families.