The premise of minimum wage, originally started by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was created so the average American family could survive off of a minimal amount. Back then the familial unit could live with the breadwinner making only 25 cents an hour, but now times have changed. Prices of consumer goods have gone up since the Great Depression and, quite frankly, families cannot subsist on the current minimum wage of $7.25.

As proposed by President Obama, increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 would greatly help

the American people, and sometimes I can’t even really fathom the argument against it. Yes, it does increase the prices of goods, and we would have to adjust annually for inflation, but study after study shows that it will not increase the prices by any significant amount. To prove this point, McDonald’s has tested to see how much the prices of the foods would increase and found that they would only have to raise the price of each food item by 5 cents. Even if the prices were raised higher than 5 cents, with people making more money, naturally they will be able to afford more necessities. According to the Washington Post and PolicyMic, increasing the wage would lower the amount of people living in poverty by 58 percent, lower the gender pay and racial pay gap and overall benefit more than 70 percent of government contract employees. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t mind paying an extra 5 cents for my 10-piece chicken nuggets to make sure the person making my chicken nuggets doesn’t have to work three jobs to support their family.

To support their family, as stated on Think Progress, a minimum wage worker earns approximately $15,000 annually, and when you subtract all the expenses of food and housing, there isn’t enough left over to live the American Dream. America has one of the highest standards of living, yet there are 46.5 million people forced to live off of meager earnings. Some would argue that those making minimum wage should have gotten better jobs, worked harder in school or that they’re just teenagers, but tell that to the average minimum wage worker: 35-year-old women with college degrees, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

The United States is progressing incredibly slowly in comparison to other countries. For instance Australia’s minimum wage is $16.88, in American dollars, and their economy is booming. Twelve and a half percent of Australians live in poverty compared to 15 percent of Americans. Naturally, as a nation we do not want anybody to live in poverty, and raising minimum wage cuts the number of people living in poverty and will greatly alleviate the poverty problem. This is the country of equal opportunity and, honestly, if we don’t raise minimum wage, the opportunities are never going to be equal.