Working is supposed to keep people out of poverty. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour and working class households are struggling to live outside of poverty. There is a constant debate about whether the minimum wage should be raised or should remain the same in the United States. Business owners believe that raising the minimum wage will kill jobs and hurt the economy. On the other side of the argument, the workers believe that increasing the minimum wage won't kill jobs and it may even give the economy a boost by presenting more pay to low-income workers who are likely to spend it. .
The minimum wage is the minimum hourly wage an employee gets paid from her/his employer for the work that has been done. Currently, it is $7.25 per hour in the United States (Mejeur). A worker –who makes minimum wage– who works five hours a day and six times of the week, makes $36.25 each day and $217.5 each week. Some states in the United Stated have their minimum wages set above the federal minimum wage. For instance, the minimum wage in where I live–California– is $9.00 per hour; it is above the federal minimum wage (Mejeur). Last year, I was a minimum wage worker at a sushi restaurant in Chico, California. I worked every Monday and Wednesday after school from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM. I earned fifty-four dollars each week. Also, Arizona has its minimum wage set above the federal minimum wage ("In Your State"). My cousin Can is a sophomore at the University of Arizona. The minimum wage in Arizona is $8.05–almost a dollar less than California– per hour. He works twelve hours per week at the cafeteria on campus as a cashier. He gets paid $96.06 each week. .
The minimum emerged about seventy-eight years ago. On May 1937, the President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the first step and sent the bill to Congress, hoping it could pass. The proposal –which is called the minimum wage now– did not pass the Congress for thirteen months because of the political climate.