Opinion

A 15 MINIMUM WAGE IS NEEDED IN AMERICA FOR ALL AMERICANS 

Biden’s new proposal to raise the federal minimum wage could save millions of Americans from financial burden and stress

April 2, 2021

As a working high school student, I get paid 11 dollars an hour, which is 3.75 cents above the minimum wage in America (7.25). My check covers a few meals at a fast-food restaurant, one small grocery bill, and maybe a few miscellaneous items for two weeks. Now imagine a single mom living on a 7.25 dollar per hour wage with kids, a mortgage, grocery bills, and student debt to pay. To put this in perspective she would need to work 139 hours to even get by and there are only 120 hours within a 5-day week. 

     A $7.25 hourly wage would be converted to about $15,080 per year. This paycheck is extremely low, making an individual barely above the poverty line, living paycheck to paycheck. A full-time worker living on federal minimum wage would even qualify for food stamps. It’s extremely hard to comprehend how an individual can live on this paycheck but imagine a whole family living on a yearly salary of 15,080 dollars. The quality of life goes down, mental health issues increase and basic needs aren’t met. 

     Money and financial problems play a huge factor in increased suicide rates. The American Journal of Epidemiology found out that financial stressors like unemployment, low income, may make someone 20 times more likely to attempt suicide. Fortunately, there is a solution to the problem, according to a 2020 study published by the American Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, raising the minimum wage as little as one dollar would cause suicide rates to drop. As shown in these statistics, people living in poverty don’t just struggle financially but also have mental health issues. Many low-income workers are struggling to make ends meet, provoking them to have extreme stress, anxiety disorders, depression, or other mental illnesses.  Raising the minimum wage could not only help the quality of life for many struggling Americans but it could also save thousands of lives.

Raising the federal minimum is a long process and doesn’t just happen overnight. Biden has proposed to raise the minimum wage to 15 dollars per hour by 2025. If his plan is successful he would pull 900,000 people out of poverty,  increase pay for 17 million workers and help narrow the chronic economic gap between white Americans and Black and Hispanic Americans. The minimum wage has been at $7.25 per hour since 2009 but with the Raise the Wage Act the federal minimum wage would go to $9.50 an hour in June. Then it would continue to rise until it hits $15 in June of 2025. The Liberal Economic Policy estimates that 31 percent of African Americans and 26 percent of Latinos would receive a raise if the minimum wage was increased, which would play a crucial role in reducing racial economic disparities. 

      Some concerns about raising the federal minimum wage are it would take a toll on the economy and take away millions of jobs to help employers pay their employees more. Two economists from Princeton University, Card and Krueger surveyed 410 fast-food restaurants and found that higher minimum wage job openings increased rather than decreased. According to Arindarsist Dube, a leading minimum wage researcher he states with companies would benefit from a wage increase because employees would be less likely to quit, which would save time, money, and resources.

       Raising the minimum wage will not completely solve all financial problems for an American living on federal minimum wage but it will provide some financial freedom, but if we slowly start to raise the minimum wage even by a dollar it could relieve financial stress, and anxiety, or even save a life for a struggling individual living on a paycheck to paycheck salary. 

Sources
livingwage.mit.edu/articles/19-new-data-calculating-the-living-wage-for-u-s-states-counties-and-metro-areas

healthline.com/health-news/how-raising-the-minimum-wage-can-be-a-win-for-mental-health#Suicide-rates-drop

pbs.org/newshour/health/how-economists-see-bidens-15-wage-proposal