Raising minimum wage good for students
0Written by Felecia Proctor
The federal minimum wage is an issue that should be of particular concern to college students. Many students rely on part-time or full-time minimum wage jobs to help them with bills, books, fees, and tuition. Upon graduation, students are expected to begin a career in the area that they studied. Unfortunately, that is not always the case; sometimes, the opportunity to begin careers immediately is not there, and graduates have to get a job that will pay the bills. The first job recent graduates obtain might only pay minimum wage until they can move into the objective career. For college seniors, their anxiety about finding a well-paying job in their field is great.
Raising the federal minimum wage will not only benefit college students while they’re studying, but people that cannot find a position in their desired career, whether they have a degree or some type of certification. Obtaining a job that only pays minimum wage is not desired because $7.25 per hour may not be enough to pay the bills and school loans. If Congress raised minimum wage above $7.25, it would be able to help a lot of college students as they study and alleviate some fear about graduating.
Minimum wage supplies employees with an earning floor that forces employers to pay a living wage. For employees that do not have a college degree or any type of certification, minimum wage helps ensure they earn enough. However, due to inflation that has led to a higher cost of necessities, the minimum wage that once coincided with the living wage is now below the living wage.
There are 27 states that have set a higher minimum wage than the federal rate, ranging from $7.50 in Arkansas to $9.47 in Washington and $9.50 in the District of Columbia. With the high cost of living in some urban centers, many cities across the nation have passed legislation that goes beyond the federal minimum wage. For instance, Seattle will have a $15 per hour wage by 2021. San Francisco is at $10.74 per hour, Santa Fe is at $10.66 per hour. San Diego will be at $11.50 by 2017, and Washington, D.C. will be at $11.50 by 2016.
President Obama is seeking to raise the federal minimum wage in the coming year as he outlined during his recent State of the Union address. Kentucky is going through a process of trying to raise minimum wage but is awaiting federal legislation to move forward.