In the recent years inflation has been rising, but the minimum wage for workers has not. The last time the national minimum wage was raised was nine years ago, in 2009. The minimum wage was established in 1938 under the president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It started at .25 cents an hour. According to procon.org the reasoning for the minimum wage was to help women and children get paid fair wages when they could not join a union. If they were paid enough to take care of themselves then it would prevent them from being forced into prostitution.

Minimum wage has not kept up with inflation. The minimum wage in 1968 was $1.60, that amount has the same buying power as $11.16 would today. According to Inequality.org, if the government were to keep up with the rising of goods and services, it would make it much easier for families to afford necessities like shelter, and nutritious food. If the government had kept up with the growth, minimum wage workers would be making around twenty dollars an hour.

The raising of federal minimum wage would lessen the number of people dying from preventable deaths. In 2014, a study in California showed that people making thirteen dollars an hour were healthy and had better well-being. Raising it to that amount would be enough for people to purchase food, and it showed that they were more likely to exercise more.

Raising that wages we pay our workers would even decrease crime rates. According to a study by the Executive Office of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, raining that minimum wage to twelve dollars would decrease crimes. A few of those crimes being: burglary, and car thefts.

Raising the minimum wage would have societal benefits that would improve many people’s day-to-day lives.