Minimum wage speech

I like to take just a few minutes of your time to discuss a important matter in the economy today. Now I want everyone to picture this, a hardworking father whose salary ranged between 40,000 to 50,000 dollars a year. The single father recently was a victim of job cuts and is now laid off. The father begins immediately looking for a new job. But everyone knows in this tough economy it seems impossible. Days, turn into weeks, weeks turn into months and bills begin to pile up. The single father’s decides at this point it is about survival and is willing to take any job at this point.

The father sees an ad online for a cashier at the local grocery and know it’s the best job in the world, but the father knows that it is about survival at this point for his family, so he decides’ to take the job to realize that it’s just the minimum pay. This is just one of many working class citizen’s stories right now living in the United States, with job cuts people citizens are willing to take whatever jobs are available, to sustain a suitable life style for them. Today I am going to talk to your briefly about the history of minimum wage, why it should be increased, how it can help the economy , the benefits of increasing minimum wage, what states have recently increased minimum wage, how the government is involved and what we can do as citizens. (Next Slide)

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, minimum wage is the lowest wage permitted by law or by a special agreement. President Roosevelt and members of Congress adopted the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938. This established federal minimum wage of twenty-five cents an hour. Minimum wage has been raised twenty-two times since then. Currently minimum wage is not based on inflation, consumer price indexes or cost of living. Although it has decreased in value due to it not being raised to keep up with inflation, CPI, or cost of living. Minimum wage should be increased and at some point by adjusted regularly to keep up with inflation and or the cost of living. Raising minimum wage is good for people, businesses, and the economy.

More than half of minimum wage earners are under twenty-five years old. Also most minimum wage earners are near or below poverty levels. Raising minimum wage makes people feel good, boosts their morale, and increases their income. People who make minimum wage usually don’t save their money, they spend it. Therefore; a boost in minimum wage means a boost in their spending. If businesses are making more money, there’s more demand, and profits are higher and they hire more employees. Hiring more employees puts more money into the economy and reduces the unemployment rate. All of this directly impacts the economy in a positive manner.

The U.S. “Assembly Votes to Increase California’s Hourly Minimum wage to $9.25” reports show that the state’s minimum wage would raise over the next few years: “Under AB 10, the hourly minimum wage would increase to $8.25 this year, $8.75 in 2015 and $9.25 in 2016.” President Obama during 2014’s annual State of the Union address, aggressively addressed the age-old debate of raising the minimum wage. The President has urged legislators to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour to fight the ongoing battle of class inequality. President Obama says: “It is time to raise the American people’s wage.” Today all prices are rising, no matter what they are from cars to homes, food and gas. Many people do the job of minimum wage jobs, even some take several different jobs at the same time to maintain financially in their homes.

It also can reduce the cost of the government to low-income families. People believe if government raises the minimum wage that people could earn more money. According to the article “The Case for a Higher Minimum Wage,” “An estimated 27.8 million people would earn more money under the Democratic proposal to lift the hourly minimum from $7.25 today to $10.10 by 2016. And most of them do not fit the low-wage stereotype of a teenager with a summer job.” Many cities, counties, and states already have minimum wages that are higher than the federal minimum wage.

These specific areas have chosen to make their own “minimum wage laws” or “living wage laws”. These areas have proven that increasing wages regularly to reflect inflation and cost of living will result in a positive effect. They have produced lower unemployment rates then national unemployment rates as well as lower unemployment rates than others within their states. Also these areas have proven to have higher job growth, increased business profits, and more businesses established. (Next Slide)

This slide shows just a few states the plan to increase minimum wage within the next few years. Currently, ten states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages that exceed the Federal minimum wage (7.25) (Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Now how can increasing minimum wage help the economy? full-time employees being paid the current minimum wage will have incomes below the living wage in most areas of the country. In dollar terms, that means that if you are a full-time worker supporting a family of four on the current minimum wage, your household income is $7,000 below the poverty line. Raising the minimum wage to a living wage argues that doing so would give workers and their families a better chance of climbing out of debt and poverty.

Another way is a higher wages means more consumers spending overall. A 2009 study from the Economic Policy Institute predicted that upping the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour would result in $60 billion in additional spending over two years. Furthermore, this additional consumer spending would lead to more job creation—an estimated 100,000 new full-time jobs. Increasing minimum wage helps is workers see their earnings increase. American’s support increasing the minimum wage by a solid margin. There were survey given and nearly every survey finds overwhelming support for raising the minimum wage.

For example, a national poll that was conducted in January 2012 for the Los Angeles Times found that 72% of Americans backed an increase in the wage, confirming a December 2011 Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey that found raising the minimum wage is favored by 75%. Other advantages of an increase of minimum wage are that the Increases the standard of living for the poorest and most vulnerable higher paying jobs. Decreases the cost of government social welfare programs by increasing incomes for the lowest-paid.

Encourages people to join the workforce rather than pursuing money through illegal means, e.g., selling illegal drugs. Class in society and raises average. Removes low paying jobs, forcing workers to train for, and move to, One way it can increase employment: When wages are very low, a worker often has to work very long hours to earn enough to live on. If wages are increased, then the worker can afford to work fewer hours. This frees up employment for another person. Some common myths of minimum wage are:

Myth: The only Americans working for the minimum wage are teenagers. Reality: 63 percent of minimum-wage workers are adults age 20 or over. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics). Myth: Minimum wage workers don’t support families.

Reality: The last time the federal minimum wage was increased, the average minimum wage worker brought home 51 percent of his or her family’s weekly earnings. (Source: Analysis of Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey by Professors David Card and Alan Krueger). (Next Slide)

How the government is involved with the increase of minimum wage, well Starting in 2015, businesses with new or renewed federal contracts will have to pay their minimum wage workers $10.10 an hour .President Obama mandated the increase, from the country’s federal minimum wage of $7.25, by signing an executive order. The new $10.10 hourly wage will be indexed to inflation after the first year, and it will apply to contracts and subcontracts that provide the federal government with concessions, services and construction. It will not, however, cover workers employed by businesses that provide goods, such as supplies, to Uncle Sam.

The move comes after a push from liberals, who worry that lawmakers will not move quickly, if at all, on legislation to gradually raise the minimum wage for everyone to $10.10 an hour. But the hope is it will spur Congress to approve the same The White House argued that a higher minimum wage for federal contract workers would increase morale, reduce turnover and boost productivity. It added that government contractors would be able to manage the increase because only workers on new contracts would be eligible for the boost in the minimum wage.

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So what can we do as citizen’s to help the raise of minimum wage you can reach out to Legislators to raise and/or index the minimum wage has been introduced in several states. In some of those states, activists are organizing campaigns to support the increase. In other states, the minimum wage has come under attack and worker justice advocates are fighting back. In the state of North Carolina there are no organizing campaigns so we must first begin with that by reaching out to officials in our town such as the Mayor.

In conclusion increasing minimum wage for all is extremely beneficial and will help our economy get out the crisis that we are In by making American’s spend more as well as helping other’s whom are struggling. Remember that single father who was laid off and now working for minimum wage you can see how this increase can help him sustain. My call to action to you is come with me this Friday for our diminish poverty and increase minimum wage Rally.

For more information on minimum wage you can go to www http://www.raisetheminimumwage.com/ http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/state-minimum-wage-chart.aspx How can minimum wage affect NC?

a raise in the federal minimum wage to $9 per hour would not only affect almost 700,000 low-wage workers in North Carolina, it would have a potential positive GDP (Gross Demotic Product) impact of $495 million. North Carolina’s minimum wage tracks the federal standard of $7.25 per hour, which means that a full-time minimum wage worker earns roughly $15,080 per year. For Information on NC minimum wage go to http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2014/01/30/what-would-a-minimum-wage-raise-mean-for-north-carolina/.