A young woman with 2 children wakes up in the morning to get her family ready for the day. While getting her children ready for school and herself ready for her minimum wage job, she has got the pounding uncertainty if her children are going to go to bed hungry. 1 in 7 families have this concern every day in America. At the current $7.25 rate, minimum wage is the least amount possible to compensate someone 's work in a large industry (Burgess). Almost 75.3 million people work in the minimum wage category, which is over 59% of the U.S. workforce (“Minimum Wage”). The federal minimum wage law was first enacted in 1938 in the Fair Labor Standards Act (Nayak and Sonn). In 1912, Massachusetts was the first state to pass the law. As states followed
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Every day there are single-parent families struggling to put food on the table, keep a roof over their head and keep their families warm. Mead states that there are “two Americas”, one doing well in life and the other barely getting by. With that being said, over 1/3 of Americans working for minimum wage are parents ("Minimal Wages”). These parents do not have the amount needed to care for their children and themselves. In a study conducted by William Carrington and Bruce Fallick, it is suggested that more than most workers who start out in a minimum wage career, stay in a minimum wage career (Schmitt). This shows that these parents, who are struggling every day to make ends meet, are not gaining in their careers. Even though they are working hard and earning minimum wage, they are not making the money they need and deserve. At the current $7.25 an hour rate single parents struggle with day to day obligations. As the USDA 's food insecurity data shows in 2006, 1 in 7 families with income between 100-185% of what is considered a poverty income were not sure if they had or were going to obtain food because of insufficient funds (Furman). With the raising of minimum wage, these parents could make sure their bills were paid and food was on the table every
Every day there are single-parent families struggling to put food on the table, keep a roof over their head and keep their families warm. Mead states that there are “two Americas”, one doing well in life and the other barely getting by. With that being said, over 1/3 of Americans working for minimum wage are parents ("Minimal Wages”). These parents do not have the amount needed to care for their children and themselves. In a study conducted by William Carrington and Bruce Fallick, it is suggested that more than most workers who start out in a minimum wage career, stay in a minimum wage career (Schmitt). This shows that these parents, who are struggling every day to make ends meet, are not gaining in their careers. Even though they are working hard and earning minimum wage, they are not making the money they need and deserve. At the current $7.25 an hour rate single parents struggle with day to day obligations. As the USDA 's food insecurity data shows in 2006, 1 in 7 families with income between 100-185% of what is considered a poverty income were not sure if they had or were going to obtain food because of insufficient funds (Furman). With the raising of minimum wage, these parents could make sure their bills were paid and food was on the table every