Minimum Wage
From the federal wage to a new living wage Wake County employees are seeing an increase in their paychecks. The Wake County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously in favor of the raise, which took effect December 1.
The raise will affect about 75 out of 4000 Wake County employees. The federal minimum wage is $7.25, while the minimum for Wake County employees was previously $11.08. That was scheduled to change considering factors such as the cost of living and poverty. The new policy now ensures that all full time county workers will receive $13.50.
Minimum wage was started by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938 along with the Fair Labor Standards and Child Labor Laws during the Great Depression. It was made to stop business owners from taking advantage of its workers who in turn were underpaid.
“My God! 25 cents an hour! Why all the fuss?” said President Roosevelt the night before the signing of the bill, “Do not let any calamity-howling executive with an income of $1,000 a day, …tell you…that a wage of $11 a week is going to have a disastrous effect on all American industry.”
Most states have taken action to raise their local minimum wages after President Obama called upon Congress to raise the federal wage. Connecticut, being the first state to do so, passed a legislation to change the state’s wage from $8.70 to $10.10 by 2017.
Minimum wage in the United States ranges from $7.25 in Wyoming, Wisconsin and Virginia, to $10.50 in Washington, D.C. North Carolina as a whole still uses the federal wage of $7.25, but many counties are rethinking it.
“I think [minimum wage] is too low. Those who are on it are on food stamps and don’t get health care, so it should be raised,” said Cheryl Bruns, librarian.
Wake County has the highest cost of living in North Carolina and $13.50 makes it the second-highest paying local government in the state, following behind Carrboro County at $14.98 and followed by Chapel Hill at $12.53.
“It shouldn’t be about moral quality but economic good sense,” said Ken Davenport, teacher.
In 2013 Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa and Representative George Miller of California introduced a bill that would have raised the federal minimum wage to $10.10 by 2015. The plan was to keep the wage accustomed to inflation.
Some people say raising minimum wage is the cause of inflation, going with the idea of rugged individualism. This says that minimum wage should be low to encourage those who are unhappy to push themselves to do better and get better jobs. This year, according to Nebraska City News-Press, inflation is going to be the biggest problem.
Others, would argue along the lines of John Maynard Keynes’ theory that raising pay would benefit the economy, allowing people to spend more therefore pumping more back into economy.
“Minimum wage is short for minimum living wage. It was something meant for a person to be able to live off of,” said Davenport. “ It’s too low for today and should be raised.”https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B28REH7Iwu7zQUNxYXpCLWZ3UjQ/view
