“Fast Food Workers Fight for $15 Minimum Wage.” This eerily familiar title sounds very recent, but this is the title of an article published by the Harvard Political Review in 2015. Although the fight for fair pay has been raging for nearly a century, it is and will continue to be one of the most important battles in the U.S.
At first glance, someone can calculate that $7.25 per hour is not enough to survive, implying the minimum wage should be raised. But this economic problem is much more complex than a simple calculation reveals. Raising the minimum wage is important to keep the economy and country moving forward, but awareness of the risks that come along with the raise is imperative to make well-informed policy decisions.
An Old Struggle
This fight is not new. The first federal minimum wage was established by the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938. This law designated a change in U.S. labor policy, which had previously contributed to inequality and the collapse of the economy during the Great Depression. Along with a minimum wage, it also established child labor laws, a 40-hour workweek, overtime pay, and requirements to record this and more information for proof of compliance.
Since then, the minimum wage has been adjusted 23 times. During the most recent change in 2009, Congress moved the minimum wage up to $7.25, a 70 cent raise from the previous $6.55. The sentiments that led to the FLSA have carried on into our more recent times. In July 2019, 81 years after the...
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