John Boehner: A Memo

Dear John Boehner,

I have come to believe that you don’t want to raise the minimum wage. In a 1996 interview with The Weekly Standard you even said "I'll commit suicide before I vote on a clean minimum-wage bill,".1 More recently when talking about Obama’s call upon congress to raise minimum wage to $10.10 per hour by 2015 you said that it would help “somewhere close to zero.”2 people. Both strong responses by a man like yourself, the Speaker of the House and the leader of the Republican party, who has so much control over American politics as both the senate and the house are majority Republican. Your opinion is especially important because you represent your whole party, and your opinion will ripple through the senate. This issue of minimum wage has been a subject of much debate for as long as it has existed, but overall the facts tell what really is true. Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 helps everyone overall by increasing the amount of jobs available and inputting more money into the economy.

Raising minimum wages have always been something that has lifted people out of poverty. In order to achieve just the previously mentioned, Franklin D. Roosevelt created the first minimum wage in 1938 near the end of the great depression; That same year this minimum wage was enacted, the unemployment rates started to fall back to where they began before the great depression.3 During the economic downturn of 2008, the unemployment rate skyrocketed. In order to battle the high rates of poverty and unemployment, president Obama raised the wage substantially (by $2.10 since 2007) to $7.25 where it is now.4 Now he wants congress to raise the wage to $10.10 by 2015 like I previously mentioned.5 Recently the city of Seattle, Washington has raised their minimum wage to a country high of $9.32 per hour and have approved to raise it to $15 per hour in the coming years. Since Washington has started to raise their minimum wage (it was $8.50 at the end of the crash), their unemployment rate has gone down 4.6% proving that raising the minimum wage creates many jobs.6 The $7.25 where it is right now is about average for the minimum wage, but average doesn't necessarily mean good. Your Republican party supports a lower wage as opposed to the Democrats who support a higher wage, but the core of this debate seems to be disagreeing on the fundamental principle of its effect on job creation or destruction. This ongoing debate is a problem because as the majority in both houses is Republicans, their attitude towards minimum wage affects its future most. Republicans need to realize that you are damaging the livelihood of younger workers and new immigrants by arguing not to raise this wage. The Republicans arguments against minimum wage are contrary to the facts, historical examples prove that when minimum wage raises, jobs also increase and the unemployment rate goes down. You should now be convinced that increasing the minimum wage does help the economy by creating jobs. The $10.10 that Obama proposes is perfect because it is not so high that it will damage the prices of goods but it not too low like where it is now. Right now someone working 250 (about the average number of days someone works per year) days a year for six hours a day (most minimum wage positions are not full work days) makes $10875 dollars a year, under the $11670 that you set to be the poverty line for one individual.7 By passing laws to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 you can increase the income to something that someone can live off (on your standards). Not only would a law that raised the minimum wage let many people pass through the poverty line, it wouldn't affect the consumer price index as there are no indications that anything to do with the minimum wage has affected it at all. In fact the consumer price index is always increasing so by increasing the minimum wage you could modernize that policy.8 Furthermore your argument to minimum wage decreasing the number of jobs has been proven wrong by my Washington example and many others. Overall many poor working class individuals will be able to feed their families without having to rely on social security. This change might also increase the number of college graduates as many people who are willing to take these low paying jobs need money to pay for their schools, a higher wage is an incentive to do this. The minimum wage has always risen to keep up with the times and now is the perfect opportunity to help the economy when we are still recovering from the recession. I hope this letter changes your mind about the policy so you can help millions of those less fortunate.