Minimum wage podcast

The podcast discusses the minimum wage policy in the United States. The Raise the Wage Act, which aimed to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025, was passed by the Democratic House but rejected by the Republican Senate. The history of minimum wage laws in the US dates back to 1912 when Massachusetts implemented the first law. President Roosevelt proposed a $12 to $15 minimum wage in 1933, but it was overturned by the Supreme Court. The Fair Labor and Standards Act was signed in 1938, establishing a minimum wage of $0.25. The act has been amended several times, with the most recent increase in 2009 to $7.25. There are arguments for and against raising the minimum wage, with proponents believing it will lift people out of poverty and stimulate the economy, while opponents fear inflation and job losses. Despite efforts to raise the federal minimum wage, it has remained at $7.25 since 2009. Many states have their Hello, my name is Daniel Antonetti and thank you for tuning into my podcast where we discuss politics, policies, and issues important to our everyday lives. Today we will be talking about the minimum wage policy in the United States of America. In March 2021, the Democratic-held House of Representatives passed legislation called Raise the Wage Act, which would gradually increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour by 2025. However, the bill died in the Republican Senate, who decided not to discuss any increase in the minimum wage or vote on the proposed legislation. As a result, the debate about whether to lift the minimum wage rages on with proponents stating the wage increase would allow hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty and opponents of the bill saying that small businesses would suffer. It is a debate that has been going on for more than a century. To fully understand why the minimum wage policy is so controversial, first we need to understand the history of minimum wage laws in the United States of America. So pretty much how did we get here? The first minimum wage law in the United States was established in the year 1912 in the state of Massachusetts. Now you would ask why Massachusetts, right? In 1912, after a 14-year-old boy had his leg crushed in an elevator at a mill, workers went on strike. Three people lost their lives. However, the workers were successful in their fight. The strike forever changed work and pay. Massachusetts passed the nation's first minimum wage law, although it was limited to women and children. Several states followed this act shortly after. These states were then passing minimum wage laws of their very own, right? However, the federal minimum wage policy discussions were initiated in the early years of the 1930s. A response to the Great Depression, when one-fourth of the working force in the United States of America were unemployed and were financially struggling, right, because of this Great Depression. So in an effort to help the nation recover from the Great Depression and revive the economy, in the year 1933, President Roosevelt proposed a radical legislation that included policies to set a weekly $12 to $15 minimum wage. A commitment not to hire workers younger than 16 years of age, and a work week no longer than 40 hours. However, the Supreme Court overturned this legislation, citing the U.S. Constitution and that the President doesn't have power to institute such policies. In response, the Roosevelt administration pursued another legislation that would protect workers and be aligned with the Constitution to avoid legal challenges. A noted moment in the history of the minimum wage law fight was during Roosevelt's campaign for re-election in Massachusetts. During this campaign, a young girl who was working at a sewing factory handed him a note. In this note, the girl actually pleaded for help, stating that 200 factory workers who got their weekly pay was recently cut down from $11 a week to $4 to $6 a week. Responding to the girl's plea, Roosevelt was determined to create a minimum wage law. Ultimately, in 1938, Roosevelt signed a major labor law, the Fair Labor and Standards Act, which is called the Act. The Act established a minimum wage of $0.25, which meant that the vast majority of employees of, regardless of state, where they live cannot be paid below a minimum wage. The Act also set a cap on hours worked per week and set restrictions on child labor. The Act has been amended several times since the original 1938 bill in administrations of both parties. The most recent change became effective July 24, 2009. This increased the federal minimum wage to $7.25. To form its establishment in 1938, the Act was controversial and did not gain support of all Americans. As labor organizations supported the bill and celebrated its passing, building the law would improve labor standards for American workers and create better conditions for the one-third of Americans who were in financial hardship. The business communities, such as Building Trades, National Association of Manufacturers, and others largely opposed to it. Opponents insisted that higher wages could lead to inflation or would cause labor cuts, ruin small businesses, or even force them to close or reduce jobs. Now there are pros and cons to this, right? The minimum wage has been a political issue since its inception and there are sharp partisan differences in opinions. While 87% of Democrats say they welcome minimum wage increase to $15 an hour, 72% of Republicans are against the idea. So here are those pros and cons. So the pros of raising minimum wage, liberals and organizations argue that changes are needed to help lower income workers keep pace with increasing cost of living. Higher minimum wage will lift millions out of poverty. Other pros are reduction in the need for federal and state government spending on financial aid for poor and low-income individuals, improved employee morale that will lead to increased employee retention and reduced hiring and training costs, encouragement to low-wage workers to put maximum effort to do their job, low-paying workers feel that their jobs aren't keeping them out of poverty, a boost to economic growth, a higher minimum wage will put more money in the pockets of millions of Americans, money that would then flow to retailers and other businesses. And there are also cons to this. The cons of raising the minimum wage, conservatives, corporations, and business groups such as the National Retail Federation and the National Federation of Independent Businesses believe that higher wages could have several negative repercussions, which could be increases in businesses' prices, thus fueling inflation as well, through salaries increasing across the board, increased operating expenses for companies that would then increase the prices of products and services to cover their increased labor costs. Increased prices can lead to increase in the cost of living for Americans that could negate any advantage of higher wages. Potential job losses, businesses can be forced to cut jobs to maintain profitability. Increased labor market competition for minimum wage jobs. A large number of overqualified workers would be taking minimum wage positions that would ordinarily go to young or inexperienced workers. This could slow down younger and less experienced workers getting jobs, gaining experience to move their careers forward. However, studies demonstrate how these predictions did not come true. Now despite numerous efforts to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, since 2009 the federal minimum wage has stayed at $7.25 an hour with no adjustments for inflation. Over that period, the value of the dollar has fallen roughly 17%. We should note that 31 states have established their own laws to update the minimum wage throughout the state above and beyond the federal minimum wage required by the Act. Each time minimum wage changes, employers are required to raise standard pay rates for employees to the new minimum wage. Today, Washington had the highest minimum wage rate at $15.74 an hour. In our home state, Pennsylvania, the current minimum wage is still the same at $7.25. Over the last decade, a movement to increase the minimum wage has been largely worker-driven. Today, most Americans support $15 minimum wage. Only 1 in 10 Americans think that the federal minimum wage should remain at $7.25. Today, full-time employees earning the federal minimum wage, taking no time off for vacation, illness, or family emergencies earn $15,080 a year, which is well below the current poverty line of $18,310 for families of two and $27,750 for families of four. Typical minimum wage workers are employed in service jobs, mainly food preparation and serving-related jobs. We're at $7.25 an hour. No one should work 48 hours a week and live in poverty, which was said by President Biden during a CNN town hall event in February 2021. In 1938, the minimum wage is meant to be a living wage. However, the minimum wage in the United States is no longer a living wage, yet there are still many Americans living and struggling on it. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1.1 million workers, about 1.5% of the U.S. workforce, earned wages at or below the minimum wage in 2022. These workers live without luxuries and necessities and are still struggling. Even though many states are paying more than this amount, minimum wage earners continue to struggle to make ends meet. At $7.25, the federal minimum wage hasn't kept up with the cost of living in more than half a century. Policy workers must work to raise the federal and state minimum wages to benefit workers, help employers attract and retain them, boost consumption spending, and stimulate local economies. Further raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour will provide the following benefits. Increase the wages of one in four workers, which is nearly $40 million, and lead to an annual wage increase as large as $8,000 for some of the lowest wage workers. Help reduce gender, racial, and ethnic wage gaps for women, black, and Latino workers who now earn less than $15 an hour. This will be an investment in growing the middle class and provide the economic stability to workers and their families. With higher wages, millions of Americans would be closer to economic security and peace of mind. This could help workers meet emergency expenses as well. In conclusion, raising the minimum wage would be an investment in workers that could be life-changing for some of the lowest wage earners, providing them with additional income that would help build their economic security. Policies such as Raise the Wage Act of 2021 would be especially helpful for women, black, and Latino workers. It is up to federal and state policymakers to take steps to raise the minimum wage to not just help build economic stability for workers, but also create a more equitable, sustainable vehicle for growing the economy. My name is Daniel X. Nutty, and thank you for listening in on my podcast.