By Ilhan Raage
Editor-in-Chief
This year might just be the beginning of a revolution for income equality. Why? Because it brings with it a much needed minimum wage raise. Previously, the federal minimum wage was $7.25 and had not been increased since 2009.
In January, Minnesotaís minimum wage went up. There was a 17 cent increase in minimum wage for small employers, from $7.87 to $8.04, and a 21 cent increase for large employers, from $9.65 to $9.86.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the goal of the Raise the Wage Act of 2019 is to gradually raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024.
In order to do so, the plan is to raise the federal minimum wage to $8.55 this year and increase it over the next five years until it reaches $15 an hour in 2024.
Before the Raise the Wage Act came the Fight for $15, which was launched by striking fast-food workers in 2012 and it showed that states representing approximately 21 percent of the US workforce approved raising their minimum wages to $15 an hour.
The Economic Policy Institute also mentioned that the benefits of gradually phasing in a $15 minimum wage by 2024 would be far-reaching, lifting pay for tens of millions of workers and reversing decades of growing pay inequality.
This would cause a significant change for many reasons, among those changes being a way to close the gap of income inequality. Income inequality is extremely high and this could cause damage to economic growth in the US as well.
The best way to combat income inequality is by raising the minimum wage so that citizens can earn more. The Raise the Wage Act could do a lot for America as a country, but most importantly it would help level the playing field between the top 1 percent and bottom 99 percent.