The Minimum Wage Problem
Adam Gieseke
This is slightly different from other diary entries, but I thought it was important to mention. The minimum wage of the country has always been an issue. This number that describes the value the least important job is worth has been an issue since its inception. While the United States did not have a minimum wage while the industrial revolution was occurring, it was implemented by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1938. This initial federal standard was set at $0.25 per hour, which is equivalent to approximately $4 an hour today due to inflation (Bose). The value of the United States Dollar has continued to rise, with the value of $100 in 1938 being equivalent to approximately $1,865 in current USD (Webster). Conversely, the federal standard for minimum wage is only $7.25 currently in comparison to the equivalent $4 standard that was implemented in 1938. This is a major injustice that has had a negative effect on the lives of Americans by valuing different areas of the country differently, despite performing the same job.
Figure 1: Inflation of the United States Dollar since the implementation of the minimum wage (Webster).
The minimum wage has often been linked to the poverty line. Since the late 1980s, an individual working a minimum wage job for 50 weeks a year while working 40 hours each year would make around 60% of the national poverty line, or they are 40% under the poverty line (Bose). This does not factor in the different minimum wages that are present in different states and cities. For example, the minimum wage is $14 in California, which seems like an improvement over the federal standard (Department of Industrial Relations in California). However, the cost of living is much higher in California than in other states. A worker in California should be expected to make up to double their equivalent salary in Ohio to live the same quality of life (Best Places). This is an important injustice, as the minimum wage of Ohio ($8.80) is not half of that in California allowing the minimum wage worker in Ohio a better chance to reach living standards (Meibers). The minimum wage was originally implemented in order to guarantee a better standard of life for the people working the jobs, but with the current inflation levels of the USD, there is no way that it is capable of providing enough sustainability for people to thrive within the United States. This has led to a difference in the value of the USD in different parts of the country, furthering the injustice towards those working minimum wage jobs.
Figure 2: A map of the United States showing relative value of the United States Dollar (Bellafiore).
Bibliography
Bellafiore, Robert. What is the Real Value of $100 in Your State? 14 August 2019. https://taxfoundation.org/real-value-100-state-2019/. 14 March 2021.
Best Places. 2021 Cost of Living Calculator. 2021. https://www.bestplaces.net/cost-of-living/columbus-oh/los-angeles-ca/75000. 27 March 2021.
Bose, Apurva. History of Minimum Wage. 2016. https://bebusinessed.com/history/history-of-minimum-wage/#:~:text=Minimum%20wage%20was%20set%20at,Labor%20Standards%20Act%20(FLSA). 27 March 2021.
Department of Industrial Relations in California. Minimum Wage. December 2020. https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_minimumwage.htm. 27 March 2021.
Meibers, Bonnie. Ohio minimum wage gets inflation boost in 2021. 4 January 2021. https://www.journal-news.com/news/ohio-minimum-wage-gets-inflation-boost-in-2021/HLG2ISKKWJG23GKFXALDAITDCA/. 27 March 2021.
Minimum Wage. December 2020. https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_minimumwage.htm. 27 March 2021.
Webster, Ian. CPI Inflation Calculator. 2021. https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1938. 27 March 2021.
I like your post and the fact that you went all the way back to the beginning to compare minimum wage to now. This topic is super confusing to me because it seems like a federal minimum wage wouldn’t make much sense. This is because of what you talked about, the cost of living changes by state and even by what part of the state you live in. This means that a federal minimum wage should be the very lowest that satisfies the cost of living for the cheapest place in the United States. This is why different states have different minimum wages as you talked about. I wish you would have connected it to a dialect we talked about like the Subaltern. I would have said this is like the Subaltern as the people that work these minimum wage jobs don’t have power. These people majorly lack the ability to change their circumstances in the highest levels of government. In this sense, they are the ones that cannot speak and be heard by the government.
Hello,
Great showcase regarding minimum wage and the inequality of different areas in the United States and the quality of life different people are able to live earning that wage. I feel with the topic of minimum wage there’s always the question of how do you resolve this issue without inflating the value of the USD even more. I’m not very educated when it comes to economics so I don’t know the solution myself which is probably why it’s a major issue today. Many aren’t truly informed on the situation and therefore it ends up being a consistent issue in politics and debates without it being resolved.