Increasing the minimum wage may help hard working families make ends meat. The first federal minimum wage in 1938. Started at $.25 an hour. In 1968 it reached its peak value. Since then the value has fallen thirty percent, so that today's minimum wage of $5.15 is equal to $4.18 which is equivalent to the value in 1995 (women, 4). Some states have decided to raise the minimum wage above $5.15 an hour even though the senate ultimately sets the minimum wage. There was a push to raise the minimum wage two dollars in the next two years. The average yearly income for a person who works minimum wage is around $19,000. In the United States there are over 1.6 million minimum wage workers. Fifty-three percent of minimum wage workers are high school, or college students, seventeen percent are the retired, and thirty percent being unskilled workers. Because the minimum wage is not enough for most people to live on, in 1994 local union leaders and activists have helped to pass more than......

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Title: Minimum Wage Troubles
Approximate Word Count: 1291
Approximate Pages: 6 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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