The topic is perhaps most interesting to the average American. At some point in our lives, almost everyone has been paid the minimum wage. Due to this fact, it is of popular debate over dinner, at restaurants, and in the typical American living room. The people of the United States should support raising the federal minimum wage because empirical evidence proves that it does not lead to job loss. Americans know a raise in the minimum wage is one way to help make work pay. For many working Americans an increase in the minimum wage will make the difference between living in poverty and not. .
Minimum wage is not new to the United States. There is a long history behind why it is still in effect. It has been a labor law topic since the early 1930s. Minimum wage was finally introduced during the Great Depression (minimum-wage.org). There was no legislation to protect workers from exploitation and barely any regulation with employment. Because of this thousands of workers were taken advantage of and forced to work in horrible conditions. There were earlier attempts by labor unions to make minimum wage laws but the Supreme Court quickly ruled them unconstitutional. They said that the laws would "restrict workers right to set the price for his own labor". Employers didn't really care about peoples living situations so they continued to exploit their workers. There was nothing people could do about it because through the Great Depression, there was an incredible demand for jobs and this caused wages to drop down even further. In this situation workers couldn't say that they weren't being paid enough and didn't want to work anymore. They had to work and make whatever money they could get because if they quit it was not likely that they could find a new job fast enough to support themselves or their families. Poverty was becoming a severe problem worldwide and something had to be done.