EOC Week 7: Minimum Wages

Today I want to discuss the views on minimum wages. Should the minimum wages be higher or are they okay at where they’re at? First, what is minimum wage? I looked up the definition of what minimum wage means and this is what I found. Minimum wage is the least amount of wages that employees covered by the FLSA or state law may be paid by their employers. So it’s the lowest amount paid that can be given that an employer can legally give to their employees. Generally, employers may establish wages and salaries as they wish, but they also must comply with federal, state, and local laws that directly affect compensation programs. Nevada's minimum is $7.25 an hour, the same as the current federal minimum wage, for those offered health insurance by their employers. For those without health insurance, the minimum wage is $8.25 an hour. The Equal Pay Act (1963) requires that equal pay must be given to men and women for equal work, if the jobs they perform require equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and if they are performed under similar working conditions. I believe at this day and age minimum wage should be raised, and not just in Nevada alone, but around the U.S. In this day and age people cannot live off of $8.25 or less an hour, in this world, every home has a car, rent, internet, a phone, water, electricity and other bills that are needed to be paid. So by living off of that wage you’re conflicted by this because it’s not enough to pay all the bills and live to eat. In an article that I had read in the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is circulating a plan to raise the city's minimum wage to $13.25 an hour over three years. "There is a crisis in wages for the working poor and we feel strongly about the largest increase as soon as possible,'' said Maria Elena Durazo, chief of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, a powerful coalition of regional unions. Durazo pointed to union studies that show 46% of Los Angeles workers make less than $15 an hour.