State of the Union Address; Minimum Wage

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By Aimee Cash

Edited by Wahida Ifat

“It’s time to give America a raise,” said President Barack Obama. That got me thinking- just how exactly would that work? Raising minimum wage has been tossed around lately, as protestors have called for raising the federal minimum wage. They always seem to say that they can’t support a family on minimum wage, which is true- you can’t. Not very well, anyway. That is not the purpose of jobs that pay minimum wage, however. Entry level jobs are not designed to be full-time, feed a family jobs. They are the jobs that highschool students get to earn some spending money, or to pay for gas in that car they got for their birthday.

Still, that was beside the point.

Raising the minimum wage is a rough step, and I wondered about the repercussions that would fall back on the workers who currently are making minimum wage. If companies are forced to raise wages, who is to say that they will not cut hours? Or cut back on staffing? Speaking at a Costco, President Obama proposed a federal minimum wage of $10.10 an hour.

I know that my job currently pays below the suggested $10.10 minimum, so will a raise mean a cut in my hours? It is hard to say for sure, but one thing is certain, President Obama sounds as though he will not take ‘no’ for an answer on this one. Now it is up to Congress to decide if he continues forward with this course of action.

What happens after that, only time will tell.

One Comment on “State of the Union Address; Minimum Wage”

  1. I thought the same thing. I don’t think anyone should try and provide for a family off minimum wage and we should all work harder to live better. My mom is a teacher and we actually talked about this. Raising minimum wage to $10.10 would only be a few dollars short of what a degree-holding teacher would make. That’s crazy! It doesn’t seem like anyone is planning on raising anyone else’s wages simultaneously.

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