Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

On Wednesday, April 30, the United States Senate voted against legislation that would officially increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour, at which it has remained since 2009 without adjusting for continued inflation, to President Obama’s proposed $10.10, which would take effect by 2016. In doing so, the 42 Senators who voted down the White House-backed legislation did 16.5 million Americans a great disservice.

Many have cited concern that the Congressional Budget Office estimates that up to 1,000,000 Americans will lose their jobs as a result of this legislation if it were to pass. Many Republicans feel that such a measure is likely to cost more jobs in a fragile and unstable economy, citing the latest figures released by the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis on April 30th that the U.S. economy only grew 0.1% between January and March of 2014. At the end of the vote, a singular Republican Senator had voted for the legislation. However, as I have written in a blog post on February 19th (which may be found here), many economic advisors, including Jason Furman, the Chairman of the White House’s Council for Economic Advisors, disagree with the estimates set forth by the CBO, stating that it is very unlikely that job loss will be all that significant as a result of an increase in federal wages.

It’s also very clear from a historical perspective that job loss is not all that likely. In the 29 times that the Federal Minimum Wage has been raised since 1938, historical data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that unemployment either remained the same or decreased the following year in which the legislation was implemented.

We are not called to seek what is best for ourselves at all points in our lives, but we are called to seek what is best for humanity as a whole. And raising the minimum wage is part of benefiting that whole. There are certainly other economic policies that can be applied to help America’s impoverished, e.g. tax-break development zones, incentivizing small business growth, redeveloping and appropriating formerly prosperous industrial zones, etc., but the minimum wage hits the home the fastest. The least the U.S. Senate can do is listen to its’ constituents and pass a just legislation.

Nicholas D. Sawicki is an intern at America.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Marie Rehbein
11 years 2 months ago
Perhaps it would be better to set a maximum wage, which would require that if a company's earnings exceeds its expenses, including payroll and some reserves, then that excess would have to be split equally among all the employees.

The latest from america

Father Robert Prevost’s early years in Peru shaped his ministry and vision for the church—but few know the brutal reality he encountered there in the 1980s and 1990s.
Inside the VaticanJuly 09, 2025
A Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, by Father Terrance Klein
Terrance KleinJuly 09, 2025
A Palestinian man stands next to a burned car after an attack by Israeli settlers in Kafr Malik, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, June 26, 2025. (OSV News photo/Ammar Awad, Reuters)
On July 7, settlers carried out a daytime arson attack on the Church of St. George and a Byzantine Christian cemetery. The fifth-century church is “one of the oldest and most venerated places of worship for Christians in Palestine.”
Kevin ClarkeJuly 09, 2025
Pope Leo XIV met with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy today and reaffirmed the Vatican's willingness to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.