Should the minimum wage be raised?

NEWS FACT: Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has promised to make increasing the federal [national] minimum wage a top priority. Many Americans favor such an increase. In November, voters in six states approved raises in their states' minimum wage. A month later, Illinois also approved such a hike.

If the U.S. Congress follows through on Pelosi's pledge, the federal minimum wage may soon rise from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. The advantage of such a move may seem obvious: more money in the pockets of those who need it most. As Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who has fought for an increase for years, said, "No one who works for a living should have to live in poverty." The minimum wage has not been adjusted for inflation for nine years. During that time, the cost of housing, gasoline, and other necessities has soared.

Nonetheless, some lawmakers say that raising the minimum wage would do more harm than good. To pay higher wages, they argue, employers would have to raise prices, which would hurt consumers, or cut jobs, which would hurt workers.

Not all minimum-wage earners depend on their jobs for a living. Many are teens working after-school jobs, for instance. So while raising the minimum wage might have teens downloading more songs from iTunes, critics say, it would not actually help workers struggling to feed their families.

What Do You Think?

Should Congress raise the minimum wage?

NO

Last month, the Illinois Senate approved increasing the state's minimum wage from $6.50 to $7.50 an hour. But not all state legislators supported the hike. "This vote will absolutely eliminate thousands of jobs across the state," said State Representative Dave Winters. "Employers do not have to pay $7.50. They can simply not hire a person."

Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming agrees. Last June, he voted against a measure to raise the federal minimum wage. "If we do not balance a minimum-wage increase with economic relief for small businesses," he said, "we will stifle job creation and shut the employment door on the very individuals we are trying to help."

As Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire, who also opposed the measure, pointed out: "When the minimum wage is raised, workers are priced out of the market. That's the economic reality."

YES

"Raising the minimum wage is a great idea!" says Ebony Irby, 16, a junior at the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice [SLJ] in Brooklyn, New York. "It gives people who don't have high-paying jobs a chance."

Channell Ray, a sophomore at SLJ, agrees. "They give a lot of money to basketball players. It should go to people who actually work hard," says the 16-gear-old.

Another SLJ sophomore, Garfield Morrison, 16, believes that raising the minimum wage "would give teens an incentive to start work earlier."

Arielle Anthony, a junior at Newington High School in Newington, Connecticut, also supports a minimum-wage hike. Arielle, 16, disagrees with the claim that teens just spend what they earn on luxuries: "All the people I know who have jobs save most of their money for college. Some even use their earnings to help their families."