Another Minimum Wage on the Horizon?

The newly instituted Senate is moving closer to establishing another national minimum wage. For many people, the under $6 an hour is a serious problem. A large number of workers with such wages are parents of single-income families with children. This low salary cannot support a family on its own. Many of these families also receive large amounts of government aid and charities. Even with all of this income, some find it hard to get by due to housing costs and constant increases in expenses. One family, of which John Hosier is the only source of income, has struggled with supporting itself. He and his family rely heavily on the Salvation Army to buy the simple necessities cheaply. He is paid a meager $6 an hour at his job with the Salvation Army. Amounting to $200 a week, it is nowhere near enough for four people. The Hosier family situation is a common occurrence in many parts of the country. The minimum wage for 20 of the 50 states is still at the 1997 clip of $5.15. Many states, namely those on each of the coasts, have minimum wages above $7. Congress is deciding on a proposal to move the federal minimum wage up to $7.25 over a span of two years.

The minimum wage was first nationally created after the Great Depression in an effort to alleviate the poverty that had hit the nation. Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in 1933, promising the American people a plan of how to recover from the depression. What he came up with was the New Deal, later referred to the First New Deal. In it, he proposed numerous reforms that would relieve and restructure the economy. One of the organizations that began was the National Recovery Administration, in 1933. Its purpose was to create a minimum wage between 20¢ and 40¢, to put a limit to the number of hours in the workweek, and to abolish child labor. The minimum wage agreed upon was about 25¢. This only lasted a few years, as in 1937 the Supreme Court dubbed it unconstitutional. After that, the minimum wage was reestablished in 1938 under the Fair-Labor Standards Act at the same 25¢. Since then it has steadily increased, reaching its peak in 1968, when the $1.60 ($9.12 in today’s market) mark was set. The interval of time since the last federal raise is the longest in history. President Clinton gave states the power to raise their own individual wages. Still, look for the feds to attempt to put more money in the pockets of the poor in the Midwest, where many can’t even afford an education good enough to lead them away from punching “Bush, George” on the ballet.