Minimum Wage

I am all to sure that most of us have at one time or another known what it was like to work hard 5 days a week and get paid minimum wage. I myself can remember working for minimum wage for a short period of time when the wage was only $5.15 per hour. It is now at $7.25 per hour. Most jobs that pay minimum wage are service industry jobs and most are pretty thankless jobs at that.

Minimum wage was intended to protect the American worker from being exploited. However, there are still 5 southern states in the country that have no minimum wage laws at all. We also have 4 states that have a lower minimum wage then the wage set by federal law. Please see the map file from the Wikimedia Commons, which is a freely licensed media file repository.

Laws regarding minimum wages in the United States

States with minimum wage rates higher than the Federal rate.

States & territories with minimum wage rates same as the Federal rate.

States with no minimum wage law.

States & territories with minimum wage rates lower than the Federal rate.

The current minimum as of July 24, 2009 is set at 7.25 an hour,the wage differs in some states. Now ask yourself this question. Do you think that anyone can live off of $7.25 an hour?The answer should be NO. at that pay rate the employee only will make $290.00 a week and that is before any taxes or any other with holdings are taken out. That just is NOT a fair wage for anyone. Several questions and answers about the minimum wage laws can be found at the US Goverment info: Minimum Wage page.


I think we all should be letting congress know that a person can not live off of $7.25 an hour. After all congress gives themselves a nice raise every year or two and they are not worried about you and I. I can promise you if members of congress had to live off of min. wage. the pay scale would indeed go way up very fast.


It is up to each and everyone of us to stand and fight to get a higher min wage for our people. The min. wage should be at least 10 dollars per hour if not more. I ask each and every one of you reading this to contact your congress person and demand that the min wage issue must be made a priority due to the importance of the issue. Let them know that if the min. wage is not increased by the time the November elections rolls around they themselves could be looking for jobs.


Until nest time my friends take care.