The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is responsible for enforcing various federal laws and regulations (United States Department of Labor, 2016), which have been put in place to cover both employers and employees on all workplace-related activities. The federal law that stipulates principles for wages and overtime payments is The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), its provisions affect most public and private employees. According to FLSA, all employees are entitled to a federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, effective from July 24th, 2009 (United States Department of Labor, 2016). The law also obliges employers to pay its workers who are covered and not exempt an overtime pay, which should be more than one and a half times their regular rates. States also have their minimum wage laws and regulation. At any time, employees are entitled to earnings that are higher than the two minimums set by federal and state laws respectively.
The Congress has been debating on the need of raising federal minimum wage; this follows a call to action by President Obama in 2013. The Raise the Wage Act which is being supported by Obamas Administration was proposed by Senator Murray and Representative Scott (Komlos, 2015). The Act seeks to raise the lowest wage to $12 by the year 2020; they argue raising minimum wages will help reduce poverty. I also believe that the minimum wages should be increased because of the many benefits that will come with it. First, raising earnings enhances the morale of workers thus increasing their productivity which translates to more profits by both small and large businesses (Komlos, 2015). Secondly, an increase in income means many workers who are currently living below poverty line will be in a better placed to meet the needs of their families who are often affected by prevailing economic challenges and high costs of living (Wolf, 2015).
Conclusively, the federal minimum wage should be raised so as to help many families who are a majority of U.S working population make ends meet. Such an increase also stimulates economic growth as consumer spending increases with an increase in income. However, in some instances, it may lead to job losses, but it’s clear that benefits of growth outweigh its disadvantages.
References
Komlos, J. (2015). Column: Why raising the minimum wage is good economics | PBS NewsHour. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/why-raising-the-minimum-wage-is-good-economics/
United States Department of Labor. (2016). Summary of the Major Laws of the Department of Labor | United States Department of Labor. Retrieved from https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/majorlaws
Wolf, C. (2015). Should We Raise The Federal Minimum Wage Again? | The Daily Caller. Retrieved from http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/25/its-been-six-years-since-feds-raised-the-minimum-wage-what-were-the-economic-results/
