The topic of minimum wage seems to find itself in the cross-hairs of heated opinions and conflicting facts. I am pretty sure we have all heard some of the arguments against raising the minimum wage, like, for example, "people who flip burgers all day don't deserve to get paid more", or "it's not fair that they should be paid the same as me when I have a more important job", or my personal favorite "raising the minimum wage will cause companies to fail, lower profits, ruin the economy, and cause massive amounts of inflation". Well, I would like to talk a bit about the minimum wage, why it was created, and share why I believe it should be raised to $15 and hour.

So, let us talk a little bit about the creation of the minimum wage. On June 25, 1938, President Roosevelt signed in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which included a variety different industry standards, including setting a minimum hourly wage of 25 cents an hour.

Now, this might not seem like a lot, but combined with a max work week of 44 hours, it was livable for them.

As time went on, the minimum wage increased, and in 1968, the minimum wage matched the rate of inflation, which allowed citizens to have a more realistic livable income.

Unfortunately, as time continued to pass, the minimum wage strayed further and further away from the rate of inflation, to what we have set now as $7.25 an hour, which, by what I have gathered, is a wage that should have stayed in the 20th century. If we look now, our inflation rate is quite high, and our minimum wages sadly no longer represent the least amount a person can make to support themselves as well as possibly a family, they now represent poverty wages and it is a serious ethical and economical issue that we face.

If anything, the issue of "productivity" circles back to what the wage should be set at now. According to a post on Huffington Post.com, if the minimum wage kept up with inflation and increased productivity, it should be at $21.72, instead of the pitiful $7.25 that it is at now.

So, this brings me to the last topic, as to why those "burger flippers" and others whom individuals with a sense of superiority and misguided beliefs tend to continuously put down because they feel they are better than us. We all deserve to be able to afford basic necessities, a home, running water, electricity, health-care, and food. I recently have seen arguments saying that there are individuals getting hourly pay that deserve more money than those who work in places like McDonalds or Walmart, and I want to say that no one "deserves" higher wages than someone else. Everyone deserves the same base minimum wage that can allow them to be able to afford what everyone else who has a pretty decent salary job can. Just because I work as a sales associate in a retail job does not mean I do not deserve the same income to support myself as someone who is getting paid $15 dollars for something unrelated. We all deserve to be able to afford those basic necessities, we all deserve a wage that allows us to support ourselves and quite possibly family that we may have brought into our lives. A $15 wage would literally be a 21st century wage and would definitely help out everyone who struggles daily to pay bills, or to even survive.

By putting down those who work in food or some other low level job, that honestly drains our life forces, and saying that we do not deserve that wage increase is quite possibly the most cold hearted and self entitled statement you could possibly utter from your monstrous lips. Plus, if we had money to actually spend on extra items, we would be putting more back into the economy, because we could actually be able to afford what is produced and sold by our employers. I could actually afford to pay my tuition without the help of federal loans. I could live on my own and not have to worry about "will I have enough money after bills to be able to afford food?" None of that would be an issue, for not just me but for hundreds, thousands, even millions of others who are in the same situation I am in.

To end, I would like to say, I understand your viewpoints, and I acknowledge them. However, I would like to see some hardcore facts to back them up. Simply stating an opinion, which by the way sounds an awful lot like what most angry Baby Boomers say, does not help your side of the argument; it just infuriates me and others who are in the same boat. I welcome your rebuttals and disagreements, but just be ready to have those facts backed up by reputable sources.