No, the federal minimum wage should not be raised to $15.00 per hour. The proposition sounds great on paper, everyone gets more money, everyone is happy. Sadly, raising the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour is extremely unrealistic and would devastate our economy and cause inflation to increase, job layoffs, a tougher job market, and our major companies who supply millions of jobs to outsource to cheaper countries.

   The federal minimum wage debate has been an ongoing topic since it was introduced in 1938 at 25 cents per hour with it being raised twenty-two different times. So obviously the minimum wage has been raised multiple times to deal with inflation, I would rather define it as an adjustment than a raise, however, the proposition of the minimum wage being set to $15.00 an hour is not an adjustment to meet inflation, it is an illogical raise to an excessively high rate that would place inflationary pressures on the economy. The minimum wage was derived to prevent companies from abusing workers and taking advantage of them by paying them a dollar an hour (in terms of 2021 value of a dollar). It was not derived to hike wages and force the economy to adapt, wages should be adapting to the economy. The congressional budget office projected that a minimum wage increase from $7.25 to $10.10 would result in a loss of 500,000 jobs, put quite simply, companies can’t pay everyone that high and they would have to let go the lower-skilled workers. Manufacturing companies that employ 8.51 percent of all workers in the US would most likely start to outsource their jobs, financially they can’t pay each and every one of their employees $15 an hour, they would rather go to Mexico or China and pay $7. Forcing an extremely minimum wage on companies would sadly hurt the workers the most, sadly, that is what will happen.

   One of the biggest issues with a raise to $15 an hour, and keep in mind this is from $7.25 an hour, would be inflation. Companies would have to raise their prices so that they can pay their workers, the value of the US dollar will go down, faster than it already is. A whopper is about $4.00 right now, and if Burger King has this large increase in wage expenses, they have to change something about their income to offset the increase in expenses, they will raise prices. This doesn’t just apply to Burger King, it will apply to every business that has lower-skilled workers, most importantly merchandising and retail stores, the places that we buy all of our essentials from. Hiking up the minimum wage by an extreme amount will only cause unnecessary pain to America, not just the company owners but most importantly the lower class individuals who need their job to survive, they might lose it, and if they do get their forced raise to $15.00 an hour, that extra $1000 a month will be spent to keep up with the increased prices in everything, including housing. I suggest a small (and I mean small adjustment) every couple of years that corresponds to the inflation rate, not one that surpasses and increases the inflation rate