The current social policy issue that I chose to discuss in my first blog post is raising the federal minimum wage. I first decided to discuss this when I heard a friend discussing how President Obama issued an executive order to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 for federal contractors. I researched the issue and found several current news stories discussing it, including one from Fox News, which helped me to get a better understanding. After more research on the background of the issue, I decided it would be best to break this blog post into sections to give a clearer idea of this issue. I also realize that this issue has a lot of “layers” and I was not able to research every aspect of it. From the articles I read, I was able to form my own opinion on the issue but I am certainly open to hearing from others and how they feel about it.
The Issue and the Debate
The current federal minimum wage in the United States is $7.25 per hour and though some states have set theirs higher than that, many have not. I found a great resource to see the different wages set across the United States from the United States Department of Labor.
It is also important to note that the heated debate of whether or not to raise minimum wage has been going on for many years in the United States. Those who believe that minimum wage should not be increased think that raising it will lead to fewer jobs because the price of labor will increase. However, supporters of increasing the minimum wage believe that the current wage is far too low to maintain a decent standard of living for workers (Chicago Tribune).
Support for the Increase
As I researched the issue, I discovered that Tom Harkin, a Senator in Iowa, has been one of the strongest supporters for the increase of minimum wage. In July of 2012, he introduced a bill called the Fair Minimum Wage Act. This is also one of the main components of Harkin’s Rebuild America Act, which was introduced in March 2012.
I also found recent support for this policy. Representative Keith Ellison from Minnesota has been urging President Obama to sign an executive order to increase the minimum wage for federal contract workers for several months. This is due to the fact that members of Congress have not been able to push this through the legislative process due to some strong opposition of the policy. If interested, you can read more about that here (Huffington Post).
These legislators are just two examples of the support behind raising minimum wage and this issue will continue to be one of heated debate.
Obama’s Executive Order
One of the powers of the president is to bypass the legislative branch and issue an executive order. During President Obama’s 2014 State of the Union Address he stated that he would be using this power to increase the federal minimum wage for federal contract workers. This means that any person who is a federal contract worker and begins a new job will have the pay rate of at least $10.10 per hour.
This seems like a very good step in the right direction at first glance. However, this only impacts a very small percentage of workers in the U.S. Upon researching this further, it appears that only new federal contract workers will experience this pay increase, so those already in a contract will not reap the benefits. According to an article from Daily Finance, in 2009, there were only 2 million people who worked as federal contractors and many of those already made above minimum wage.
There are numerous examples of Americans struggling just to get by even though they are working 40 hours a week or more due to low pay. From my perspective, it seems like a “no brainer” to increase the federal minimum wage for all workers, not just those who are federal contractors. However, many people disagreed with the President’s decision and certainly don’t agree with expanding it to include all workers. From the outside looking in, it would seem that now is the perfect time for someone to be able to pass legislation increasing minimum wage. However, the President had to bypass the legislative branch and use his executive powers just to help a small percentage of people.
I know that raising minimum wage for even a few people is a positive change, but I think that more can be done. All legislators need to recognize the dire need for wage increases for working Americans who are barely getting by on their current income. I realize that many believe that increasing wages will lead to fewer jobs, but I think that a compromise can be made if both sides work together. I don’t think President Obama’s executive order was a bad move necessarily, but I think everyone needs to examine exactly who this is going to impact and how much of an impact it is really going to make before it is considered monumental.
I love the topic you chose Victoria, because it brings up such a good point that I think we will be hearing more about in the coming months. Not just the point of increasing working class wages but that of Executive Order. The President, because of the ineffectiveness of passing any legislature through the House and Senate will use his Executive Order to create new policy. He said this many times in his State of the Union address. It creates such an interesting debate in my eyes because our form of government was set up to keep one person from making all the decisions for our country. He proposes to do just that. Not illegally, but what will this do to our current political state if Obama flexes his authority and what precedent will this set for future Presidents? I believe his executive power can only reach certain elements of law making but should he be able to execute any laws on his own at all? Should this even be ethical for any President? I realize there is much frustration from all sides but is he heading toward a slippery slope for our country?
It will be interesting to follow for many years. Thanks for you post!
Thanks for your comment. I agree, I think that this is definitely going to have people talking about the ability of the president to use his executive power. I did read an article briefly about how many executive orders each president had done when they were in office and the numbers varied a lot, but some were extremely high. After doing this blog post I realized how little I know about the executive powers of the president, so I am glad I chose this issue.
This is a great topic Victoria that has a major impact on many individuals we know for years to come. I do believe that what you do to some you should do to all to keep things are a fair level plain field but I am surprisingly to my own self on the fence about this situation. If President Obama did in fact raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour for federal workers and only federal workers. I believe this will cause problems across the board for all employees. The mass of employees are your typical blue collared folks who just as well deserve pay raises. I believe overtime minimum wage will continue to slowly rise and this has been working in the United States’ favor doing it this way. I believe the only individual’s that should be getting paid a different rate accordingly should depend on private sector entities. The President should know and which I am sure he does know the very negative implications raising the minimum wages only for federal workers will have on the whole United States as a whole. Again, great topic!
Victoria – this is such an important issue on so many levels. First – I think I need to make sure that Rykita understands that the minimum wage has been raised in federal CONTRACTS – not federal employees. The requirements placed on federal contractors is set by administrative policy, so this is one place where the president has the ability to create an executive order.
Second – there are many dynamics at play here and they all affect the ability to open that political window. While there is clearly an issue of poverty and the income gap in this country, there is also a desire on the part of business to keep costs down. Each of those problems come in opposition to each other.
The debate on this particular issue is both the policy and the power of the executive branch. There are many folks talking about how to create policy in an environment where the ability to discuss differences and reach compromise is severely hampered. When politics is about only my way there is always a problem. This is only the beginning of the debate about how to overcome that blockage.
And finally, there are serious problems with income inequality and McConnell’s position that this is about teenage workers in really not supported by the facts. Those fast food workers aren’t teenagers any more!