Minimum Wage

No matter what one’s political viewpoint is about the topic, one cannot support themselves on a minimum wage salary in the United States. McDonald’s, long-running fast food chain, raised the pay for workers under corporate control by at least one more dollar an hour.

Although the raise will affect around 90,000 workers, the 750,000 workers who work in franchise restaurants will not be affected.

Students gave their opinions after being questioned on the topic.

“You have to provide equal opportunity to working class people,” said Danielle Hernandez, 10. “By depriving them of a livable wage, you are depriving them of equal opportunity to education and to the pursuit of happiness.”

Amanda Surmeier, 12, said, “The minimum wage should raise with inflation.”

According to Pew Research Center, “Since [the minimum wage] was last raised in 2009, to the current $7.25/hour, the federal minimum has lost about 5.8% of its purchasing power to inflation.

Also according to Pew Research Center, “Nineteen states (plus D.C.) have set their own, higher minimums.” Illinois is included in these nineteen states, with the minimum wage at $8.25/hour.

The highest minimum wage is paid in Washington state at $9.19/hour.

“In the 2014 State of the Union address, President Obama called on Congress to raise the national minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour, and soon after signed an Executive Order to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 for the individuals working on new federal service contracts,” as stated at whitehouse.gov.

For more information, visit https://www.whitehouse.gov/raise-the-wage.