The Importance Of Minimum Wage Laws

In our society today the minimum wage was increased and is continuing to be looked at for more increases in order for individuals who work minimum wage jobs to keep up with the cost of living. The minimum wage law is a regulation of pay that employers are expected to pay their employees. This law has federal and state guidelines. According to Jonathan Grossman, laws dealing with minimum wage began from the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Cornell University Law School stated that the purpose of the minimum wage law includes, “The minimum wage was designed to create a minimum standard of living to protect the health and well-being of employees. Others have argued that the primary purpose was to aid the lowest paid of the nation's working population, those who …show more content…
I believe that an employer should have the ability to decide how much to pay an employee after they have considered and abide by federal and state laws. The inequality of income, wealth in our society has become a real issue and according to Thomas Piketty it, “threatens democratic values and should be reversed by imposing steeply progressive income and wealth taxes on the rich and near-rich”. How does one determine the “rich” percentile? I do not necessarily believe that one needs to be taxed more if they are rich, but something needs to be done with the inequality of income and wealth. One person’s right does not trump another’s right because all should be treated equally in our culture. As stated in the Declaration of Independence, “[We are] endowed by [our] creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. Every individual in society should be created equally in our capitalistic world. What does a working citizen deserve in our society and should the minimum wage be increased?