Minimum wage will be raised to $15 by 2025
Is minimum wage too high? Too low? Should it be raised, or is that a disaster waiting to happen?
The new minimum wage bill is set to increase hourly pay to $15 by 2025
The final vote was finished by the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, July 18. By 2025, the minimum wage will be raised to $15.00 an hour. When the voting took place, 231 members voted in favor of raising the pay, and 199 opposed it.
Minimum wage is usually paid to all fast-food workers, cashiers, hosts and hostesses, amusement park attendants, etc., which means this raise will greatly affect all high school students. High school is generally the time when people take up their first job, usually paid by the hour on minimum wage. So how do students feel about this gradual rise in payment?
“I don’t really have that much time,” said Kenna Stephen (‘21). “I don’t [really] get to work that many hours during the school year, so if I could make more during the hours I do work, that would be really helpful.”
Stephen later explains that though she has to pay for her own gas and going out, she doesn’t really “have as much to pay for” as some of the older adults working in jobs that pay minimum wage. Many of them have children to care for, bills to pay, and things that they need to financially support.
The current minimum wage payment in Colorado is $11.10. It was agreed that Colorado is allowed to begin raising it in January of 2020, and the payments will start taking place in 2021.
Minimum wage has been raised before. It was raised to $7.25 in 2009, $9.30 in 2017, $10.20 in 2018, and $11.10 in 2019, and it will hopefully be at $12.00 in 2020. From there, it could very well continue to grow.
The rise of minimum wage is told to benefit a total of 33.5 million workers, including:
- 30.1 million adults ages 20 or older
- 19.6 million full-time workers
- 19.5 million women
- 9.4 million parents
- 4.6 million single parents
- 6.2 million workers in poverty
https://www.epi.org/publication/minimum-wage-15-by-2025/
“I think it would benefit most people,” said Andrea Randolph (20’), “except maybe the employers who don’t want to raise their pay.”
She continues by saying, “That would make high school so much easier.”
Though many people are on board with this idea, others think that it could be a total disaster. Employers might cut employees, the cost of living might rise, and businesses might stop hiring for extended periods of time.
When asked if she thinks that employers will let go of employees once the pay is raised, Kayla Parmley (20’) commented, “They probably would [cut employees], yeah. We have a lot of workers.”
So, what do you think? Should they raise the pay? Or is it fine where it is? Let us know in the comments below.
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Arizona Lee is a senior, and this is her second year as Editor-in-Chief of The Mav. She enjoys reading, listening to good music, and spending time with friends. She hopes to guide the student newspaper and broadcast this year to continued success.
Makinsey Hamblin • Jan 24, 2020 at 11:02 am
I read an article the other day from the owner of Wetzels pretzels that after a minimum wage increase they noticed profits actually increased because people had more money to spend on things other than necessities.
Eli Cotton • Oct 15, 2019 at 10:38 am
Not only could cost of living increase, but this raise will also cause the inflation rate to increase, possibly causing another market crash in the future. Inflation is like a time bomb, and it’s not going to be good when that bomb goes off.
Rachel Long • Oct 7, 2019 at 1:58 pm
This was passed by the House, but had not been voted on by the Senate. This means that the federal minimum wage will not be $15 in 2025, although some states have raised it.
Shelby Lewis • Oct 8, 2019 at 11:31 am
Thank you for the heads up, Ms. Long! All the information from this article was retrieved from a CNBC news article regarding this situation that stated that the Raise the Wage Act will raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. We will potentially be diving further into the situation as more information arises.
Aiden Owen • Oct 4, 2019 at 4:51 pm
I honestly believe that raising the minimum wage will not improve the economy or living conditions in the way hoped.
I was planning on staying in Colorado my whole life, but with minimum wage increasing at the rate that it is, it is only a matter of time before the cost of living matches that of California.