In the United States, the first statutory minimum wages were introduced nationally in 1938. According to the Department of Labor, on June 25, 1938, to avoid pocket vetoes nine days after Congress had adjourned, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed 121 bills. Among these bills was a landmark law in the nation’s social and economic development — Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), which banned oppressive child labor and set the minimum hourly wage at 25 cents and the maximum work week at 44 hours.
    Jacqueline Chavez, assistant professor of sociology at Troy University, said the establishment of the minimum wage sought to protect the nation’s workforce by ensuring them a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.
   “Proponents for raising the federal minimum wage argue that it can lead to a variety of benefits, including helping working families, boosting the economy and even reducing employee turnover,” Chavez said.
   Arnold Anderson, in an article in the Houston Chronicle, pointed out the Economic Policy Institute is an economic research group located in Washington, D.C., who concluded in a 1999 study that nearly 40 percent of the minimum wage earners in the U.S. are working parents. To go even further, nearly 33 percent of the minimum wage earners are married couples raising children.
    “Without a minimum wage, these workers may be forced to work for less money,” Anderson said. “An unemployed worker is given welfare, rent assistance and food stamps in many states. With minimum wage, the need for public assistance is lowered, and this reduces the tax burden on the community and the state.”
   In his state-of-the-union address earlier this year President Obama said the nation is poised for progress and called on Congress to strengthen the middle class by promoting economic policies he has proposed.
    “We need to raise the minimum wage because it’s lower right now than it was when Ronald Reagan took office,” Obama said in a speech at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., on July 24.
    There are major positives of a minimum wage — it works as an employment incentive for the unemployed, it helps reduce inequality in the U.S. and it gives labor a certain kind of dignity and avoids exploitation, unlike many other countries.
    Meghan Millea, economics professor at Mississippi State University,  said when it comes to minimum wage discussions, there are a couple of key things we need to keep in mind. There’s a national minimum wage that establishes a minimum, and then any state can have a minimum wage that is higher than the national. However, a state can’t have a minimum wage lower than the national.
   “The objective of a minimum wage is to establish a living wage for the working poor in particular,” Millea said. “What is it that people need to live? The cost of living is certainly different across the country. When states have minimum wages that are above the national they are recognizing that the cost of living in the state of California is higher than the cost of living in the state of Mississippi. They could also be reflecting the values of the state in terms of providing a higher standard of living.”
   I believe fair labor laws set the U.S. apart from other countries and cut across inequality in the working class. Every worker from every type of labor is given a shot to live the American dream where minimum wage is a necessity, not a luxury.
   The Time For A Raise organization demands a rise in the national minimum wage and said on its website timeforaraise.org, we live in the land of the absurd. These Wall Street executives are paid, conservatively, 1,000 times what someone on minimum wage earns. In a society where one person can bring home such an outrageous amount of money, it is mind-boggling that others are expected to raise their families on so little. A raise in the minimum wage would be the first step toward greater equality and revitalizing our economy.
   In 2013, the debate should be what can be an effective national minimum wage, not whether minimum wage should exist or not. Our founding fathers and politicians of the early 1900s have already debated on a minimum wage and enacted the law.