Minimum wage increase debate continues
Experts and students provide insight into how the minimum wage impacts their daily lives
Written by Sydney Fischer
President Biden correctly assumed the minimum wage increase to $15 an hour in the $1.9 trillion Covid relief package wouldn’t pass. Advocates for working-class employees are persisting in their efforts for a minimum wage increase.
According to Nicholas Wu from USA Today, Republicans have raised concerns about this issue. “Biden called for raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour as a candidate for president and included the increase in his $1.9 trillion COVID relief package. Congressional Republicans, however, have raised objections to raising the minimum wage”.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that as of 2017, over 80 million individuals are paid through wages received hourly, with nearly half of a million of them receiving the federal minimum wage at $7.25 an hour. This issue impacts individuals throughout the United States.
According to Elliott Parker, Economics Professor at UNR, raising the minimum wage would lead to economic equality. “To sum it all up, it’s hard to say in the past that minimum wage had any real detrimental effect on the overall economy. But the lack of minimum wage increases has probably been a contributing factor to rising inequality. Ever since — really — about 1980, inequality in the United States has been growing between rich and poor. If you go back to say 1969 and you look at what the minimum wage was then, it has not kept up with inflation and it has not kept up with productivity for the average worker.”
However, the unsuccessful attempt to increase the federal minimum wage isn’t just an issue of economics, but one of politics. According to Patrick Kiger from the History Channel the precedent of the minimum wage dates back nearly 80 years. “Since 1938, the U.S. federal government has established that workers are entitled to a base hourly wage,” Kiver says. “Which workers receive that minimum — and how much — has remained a political issue.” The issue has become hyperpartisan. This explains why President Biden’s pessimism in passing the bill.
According to Jeremy Gelman, a Political Science Professor at UNR, the minimum wage is an issue of political reform. “It wasn’t passed just because they didn’t have the votes,” speaking about the Covid-19 Relief bill. “It would’ve required 60 votes in the Senate which included 10 Senate Republicans and they just weren’t willing to vote for any minimum wage increase, at least how it would be talked about by the Democrats. The politics is very polarizing and becoming more polarized. Republicans generally don’t support a federal minimum wage increase.”
For those who aren’t getting paid $15 an hour, the impact the minimum wage has left on individuals, especially — the increase that would’ve taken place had the bill been successful — has left a mark on the financials of individuals. A large amount of these individuals are 25 and under. Accuchex says “About 45% of the 2.6 million hourly workers earning at or below the federal minimum were in the 16 to 24 age range. There were more than 23 percent who were between 25 to 34, a trend that has been relatively consistent for the past decade”.
Heather Wertenbaker, a student and worker at UNR says the minimum wage hasn’t impacted her life as much. “Personally, it hasn’t impacted me that much. When I was in high school, I was privileged enough to be able to work for a family business. I was being paid at least $3 above the federal minimum wage, and I was also living in New Jersey where the minimum wage was $10 I believe.”
However, Heather continues to say her brother was personally impacted by the federal minimum wage when working at Dunkin Donuts, where he wasn’t treated well as an employee while only being paid minimum wage. Wertenbaker was looking forward to President Biden’s campaign promise of a minimum wage increase.
“I feel like it (Biden’s Covid Relief Bill) would’ve been good, because people could be able to afford where they living, especially with the pandemic and everything going on,” Georgina Ramos, student and worker at UNR says when reflecting on how much a minimum wage increase would help her. “Mentally, it would provide relief as well because you won’t have to worry about having to make the payments. In the long run, I don’t know how that would be.”
NPR has stated that President Biden faces additional problems with getting Democrats to also agree to this federal minimum wage increase. However, since Democrats preferred the bill would pass by March 14 when some benefits from unemployment would go bad, it didn’t leave much time for the bill to successfully get passed.
While the federal minimum wage remains at $7.25, multiple states have different minimum state wages. According to Paycor, the only state to have a minimum wage at $15 is Washington D.C., and the lowest current state minimum wage is $5.15 in Georgia and Wyoming.
Ramos believes that a minimum wage increase is necessary, but that it’s also necessary to create disparity between different jobs. “I feel like the minimum wage at the moment is not good so we need to increase it, but also there still needs to be a gap. People who have degrees or certified job positions can make more than someone who is working in fast food. There still needs to be a difference, but not as much as there is right now.”
Wertenbaker believes the minimum wage increase would benefit many Americans nationwide. “I think it (Biden’s Covid-19 Relief Bill) definitely would’ve helped me alot because everyone in my family would be getting paid more. There would also overall be less economic stress on all of us, and that really contributes to other kinds of stress everywhere in your life.”
Jeremy believes looking at the impact individuals are facing in their daily lives, observing the way that a federal minimum wage increase to $15 could impact the future in the long term is important both economically and politically. “I think it will be increased at some point,” Gelman says. “When it’s increased to what level, I don’t know. It’s $7.25 right now. It’s a very popular policy to raise it; it polls very well. I have no doubt that, at some point, it will be raised.”
Parker believes individuals who are making more than minimum wage but less than $15 are impacted heavily by this issue as well. “ It’s not the people earning minimum wage — there’s not that many people earning minimum wage. But there’s a lot of people — something like a third of the population — that is earning above the minimum wage, but significantly less than $15 an hour. For some of those people, they’d be a lot better off.”
As business owners, workers, and politicians continue to weigh in on this debate the earning power of the middle class remains a critical issue to the economic and political climate facing the United States. While President Biden’s Relief Bill didn’t pass, hope for future bills for federal minimum wage increase continues for some.
https://blog.accuchex.com/minimum-wage-workers-statistics
https://www.paycor.com/resource-center/articles/minimum-wage-by-state/
https://www.history.com/news/minimum-wage-america-timeline
Elliot Parker: Phone number: (775) 784–4912, Email: elliottp@unr.edu
Jeremy Gelman: Phone number: (775) 682–7666, Email: jgelman@unr.edu
Heather Wertenbaker: Phone number: (609) 422–6643, Email: hwertenbaker@nevada.unr.edu
Georgina Ramos: Phone number: (702) 913–7325, Email: Gramosgavarrete@nevada.unr.edu
25 April, 2021. Quotes have been edited for clarity and brevity.
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