Minimum Wage 2021
Critical Analysis
The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 an hour. According to the data from the map above how many states have a minimum wage that is higher than the federal minimum wage?
What geographic patterns do you notice in the map of states with higher minimum wages than the national government?
What has happened to the nominal minimum wage and to the minimum wage when adjusted for inflation over the past 70 years?*
Who sets the minimum wage at the national level and who sets it at the state level?
Bernie Sanders and other progressive Democrats want to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 and hour. Economists have found that modest raises in the minimum wage does not tend to have negative impacts on overall employment. Explain whether you support raising the national minimum wage.
The federal government allows states to raise their minimum wage above the national minimum wage. Here is an interactive map from the Department of Labor of the minimum wage in each state. 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?
What would a yearly salary be on the current $7.25 federal minimum wage (40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, $7.25 an hour)?
Supreme Court Justice and gold-medal winning Olympic gymnast Louis Brandeis,** also known as the "‘Jewish Jefferson” said that the American states were "Laboratories of democracy". What did he mean?
It’s been said that because of federalism, Americans can “vote with their feet.” Regarding minimum wage, what does this quote mean?
Robert “Brutus” Yates was concerned that a powerful central government would trample on the rights of states and individuals. In Brutus 1 Yates wrote that the Constitution -which he opposed - would create a federal government that will “possess absolute and uncontrollable power.” Does this map support Yates’ claim.
Visual Extension
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.
**Justice Louis Brandeis was NOT an Olympian. Sorry! But he was called the “Jewish Jefferson” by admirers.
