Essay - Minimum Wages Were Initially Established in the United States in...

Minimum wages were initially established in the United States in 1933, but the act which created them was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court only two years later. The principle of a minimum wage, however, ***** an important one to many proponents of ***** measure, and such minimums were re-established in 1938 by the Fair Labor St*****ards Act, which provided protections for workers against exploitation or o*****r abuses (Department of Lab***** 2006). The minimum wage ideally protects workers from being paid less than a f*****ir wage for their labors, a concept which is highly contested in *****d*****y's environment ***** economic debate. Some parties claim that ***** ***** in the ***** States, which have not been raised in years, are not sufficient to provide an individual with enough pay to support him or herself; conversely, some economists *****d experts assert that minimum wages disrupt the equilibrium of a free market by regulating something (lab*****) which should be governed ***** the supply and demand principle. This essay will examine both of these arguments, and apply them to assessing the viability of the statement ***** retail giant Wal-Mart unfairly compensates its employees for ***** labor.

Aside from the arguments regarding broad concepts of justice ***** fairness, which definitely have a place in the discussion regarding minimum wage standards, from an ***** perspective many claim that higher ***** ***** workers increases their buying power, thereby stimulating the economy and promoting growth throughout the market (Card and Krueger 1997). However, some scholars claim that a minimum wage discourages employers from hiring low-level workers, harming the economy ***** through the higher unemployment rates created as well as the lowered buying power ***** the individuals denied work *****cause of an unwillingness by employers to ***** the minimum wage (ibid.). The economics arguments are difficult to evaluate from a solely economic perspective, since the ***** does not exist independently ***** o*****r f*****ors aside from the ***** wage—many influences affect the same criteria used to evaluate the effects of a minimum wage.

***** arguments regarding the justice and fairness of paying *****ers a ***** w*****ge have been significantly influenced by recent movements to ensure that the federally-mandated minimum wage provides sufficient funds for workers to ***** themselves by working full-time. Current evaluations of the minimum wage find that it falls far short of a "living wage," or one w*****h which a full-time w*****ker c*****n provide basic necessities such as adequate food, shelter, and medical expenses. Proponents ***** raising the minimum wage to a ***** w*****ge suggest that savings provided by ***** reduction in benefit ***** entitlement programs currently used to supplement many poor workers' pay (such as Medicaid, Supplemental Social Security, ***** stamps, hous*****g subsidies, and many other government programs) will balance the increased cost of labor with fewer *****s on ***** funds through a reducti***** in demand for ***** entitlement programs.

Several states—eighteen, ***** fact—have raised their own minimum wages to a higher level ***** th*****n mandated by the federal government. The most recent of the states to