Minimum Wage

How many states have a higher minimum wage than the federal government?

AP US Government and Politics

1. How accurate was your prediction?

2. Is this good news?

3. What does this map have to do with federalism?

4. What geographic patterns do you notice in the map of states with higher minimum wages than the national government?

5. Why do you think some states have higher minimum wages than others?

6. What has happened to the nominal minimum wage over the past 70 years?

7. What has happened to the minimum wage when adjusted for inflation over the past 70 years?

8. Why do you think the minimum wage adjusted for inflation has fallen for the past half century?

9. Who sets the minimum wage at the national level and who sets it at the state level?

10. If you were in charge of setting the minimum wage explain at what level would you set it:

11. What is a consequence of our current national minimum wage?

12. What would be one consequence of a higher minimum wage?

13. Did you know that economists have found that modest raises in the minimum wage does not tend to have negative impacts on overall employment? Yep.

14. Do you think states should be allowed to have a higher minimum wage than the US government?

15. What is the U.S. maximum wage?

16. The federal government allows states to raise their minimum wage above the national minimum wage. Many states, like my own, have passed laws that cities cannot raise their minimum wage above that of the state. Do you think that is a good idea?

17. What state has the highest minimum wage?*

18. What would a yearly salary be on the federal minimum wage (40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, $7.25 an hour)?

19. Describe what the typical American conservative and the typical American liberal would believe about minimum wage?

Learning Extension

Listen to the mega-hit Minimum Wage by 1990s super group They Might Be Giants while you read this tasty article on the U.S. minimum wage from The Upshot!

Action Extension

Download this gorgeous map of the U.S. Find out the minimum wage in your state from this cool minimum wage chart and then write your state minimum wage on your state on the map of the U.S. Add a couple of other states' minimum wages to your map. Mark the states as red (Republican majority legislature) or blue (Democratic majority legislature). Put the map up on a wall in your school. Discuss what you learned from this exercise in class or online in the comments section below.

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AP US Government and Politics and Groundhogs