What Americans Get Wrong in The Minimum Wage

American sweatshops flourish in the early 1900s when people are desperate for work and since there were no regulations and what they had to pay they would pay the workers technically nothing. So the US adopted some thing that had already worked in other countries and it's called the minimum wage. The minimum wage has been increasing all over the years from 1960 to 2010. You can see how it has increased I've been up from a dollar an hour in 1960 to $7.25 today go America right? But this is actually misleading if you look at this in a bigger picture you'll see the problem that. Everytime the minimum wage has been raised Inflation has dragged it right back down. In reality America's Minimum wage hasn't gone up. It has essentially stayed the same since the 80s, It's not how the rest of the world does it and leads to a bunch of problems for American workers and businesses. However It doesn't to be this way, The minimum wage sets the smallest amount that a business anywhere in the country can pay its workers each hour. However when that first bill became law in 1938 it had one big problem. That first law didn't actually set any kind of guidance on when and how you are supposed to raise the minimum wage in the future. That meant that if the minimum wage was going to go up. Congress will have to pass a new lawCongress will have to pass a new law but as we already know they aren’t occuring enough to keep up with inflation. This is awesome makes the US minimum-wage sort of unpredictable starting in 1997 the minimum wage sat at $5.15 an hour for 10 years. Then, it was raised in 2007 to $7.25 by 2009. Cool but, thats 40% increase in a pretty short amount of time, after a decade of Inaction. How do you plan for that if you own a business? Not having that does raise a lot of company for business owners, what they had to lay off employees will have to reduce work hours, or will they just raise their customers? Imagine how much smoother that could all go if the minimum wage just kind of went up over time?well we don't have to imagine it. They tie it to inflation and the average salary of a french worker. Considering economic factors like inflation. The UK also has a commission made up of union business and economic experts. The Czech republic's commission consults with employer and union representatives. They tie it to inflation and the average salary of a french worker.

In Australian a commission reviews the minimum wage every year. They tie it to inflation and the average salary of a french worker In Australia, a commission reviews the minimum wage every year, considering economic factors like inflation like the UK also has commissions made up of union, business and economic experts. The Czech Republic’s commission consults with employer and union representatives. Their line is lower overall than America’s but it still trends upwards. Their committee reviews the minimum wage twice a year. In most Countries, the minimum wage is in the hands of economic officials in the U.S its in the hands of politicians. Today the federal minimum wage is a poverty Last thing we need are more one-size-fits-all washington mandate. It could eliminate up to 3.7 million jobs it would lift 1.3 million Americans out of poverty. Those wages are only available if you get hired. Working people are doing their jobs, lets us do ours. Republicans have generally resisted increasing the minimum wage. They tend to support a lot of pro-business policies and business leaders do not want minimum wage increases. Democrats on the other hand, have a lot of support from labor unions so they're the ones who are usually pushing for an increase to the minimum wage. That is why congress rarely agrees on raising the minimum wage and what makes America's system different from other countries. If the US had done something like tie the minimum wage to the average wage each its not going to be an amazing outlier. The federal minimum wage which applies to everyone who works in america does that. But states can set their own, and about half of them currently have a higher minimum wage than the federal one like Washington state, which in 1988 decided to raise theirs every single year, based on inflation. I mean it's such a logical idea, it's done in other countries it really doesn't make sense that its not done at the federal level. Right now Politicians are yet again debating what the minimum wage should be. Should it be $15, $11 or should it not be raised at all. But maybe the solution to this never- ending debate, is to just take the decision out of politicians hands.