Minimum Wage Is An Issue That Is Causing Uproar Amongst...

Yimaj Sherif ENG 1520 Dr.James 16 August 2015 Minnsincsndcdcsdc Minimum wage is an issue that is causing uproar amongst working class citizens. For many workers, a simple increase of 30% in the federal minimum wage could be the difference between living in or out of poverty. Over the past few decades there have been countless increases in salaries, although none of those went to people who actually needed it. To this day the rich continue to get richer, vastly increasing their wealth, while the poor are struggling to provide basic necessities such as food, shelter, and clothing. While the rich keep get richer and the poor continue getting poorer, we have seen a decrease in the middle class; median income has turned into upper or lower middle class. Establishing legislation that provides workers with a wage that is able to sustain simple necessities is necessary, it would provide ample support for those who may not have been able to afford living to take a step away from poverty and move into the middle class. The minimum wage was set with the passage of The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). Its initial price point was $0.25 per hour, and it has been raised twenty-two times since. It allowed for federal protections against employers like minimum wage, overtime pay for time worked over a set number of hours in a workweek, restrictions on the employment of children, and recordkeeping requirements (uc davis). â€Å"In that year, the act applied to industries whoseShow MoreRelatedBhopal Gas Disaster84210 Words   |  337 Pageswhich had taken over the site. Today twenty five years since that fateful night, lakhs of people still living in the vicinity of the factory are exposed to toxic chemicals that continue to leach from tonnes of waste lying within the UCIL premises causing groundwater and soil contamination. As a result a whole new generation continues to get sick, from cancer and birth defects to everyday impacts o aches and pains, f rashes, fevers, eruptions of boils, headach es, nausea, lack of appetite, dizziness