Minimum Wage

Since the remaining of my vocab words all relate to the government, I'll write about it, even though it is not very interesting.

In modern today, the current minimum wage is 7.25 per hour. Even though it seems very little, a person who is very poor is able to support himself if he works full time, but it will be a hard struggle. In the past, people had an even more unfair deal. Some were paid with a few pennies every week, or not being paid at all! The history of minimum wage is very important.


In the past regimes, compensation did not exist and people possessed no rights of discretion. One of the primary laws is the minimum wage law. From the past experiences, without this law, it restricted those in the third class from getting any richer. Instead the rich became richer, and the poor became poorer. There were very few rebellions because the poor had no other choice but to contribute to this system. There were no laws to constraint the owners from this form of abuse. This was one of the main cause of the Great Depression in the 1930s, and until then did minimum wage begin to be questioned. In order to make a living, families of children and adults would work in extreme conditions that were unhealthy and had the risk of death, for unreasonably long hours. Few labor unions formed and finally became a huge riot. President Franklin D. Roosevelt required a minimum wage of 25 cents per hour to simplify the lives of the poor so they would be able to maintain their health and other factors necessary for living. From here, debates agreed to the minimum wage today. Along the way, they also formed the government revenue, which is another big history.