The thought of increasing mimimum wage from 7.25 dollars per hour to 9 dollars per hour has become major new in congress. The president of the United States believes that this increase would help fellow Americans try to get out of poverty quicker. I totally believe in this statement. The cost of living is rising everyday with gas prices, food, clothing and taxes working a 7.25 job an hour just does not cut it. Even with working full time 40 hours a week at 7.25 an employee would only be making a total of 580 dollars every two weeks before taxes. With the everyday needs of someone with kids, car, rent, food, and other daily expense that does not cut it. New Mexico minimum wage has risen to 8.50 which is a huge stepping stone for other states and the federal to increase theres. Many people would counter attack and say that no matter how much they increase minimum wage if the cost of living keeps increasing then it really wouoldnt change anything. This counter attack is a good one but if the gas prices doesnt increase, try to make living in America more affortable then this increase would benfit America in so many ways. If minimum wage increases then the people whom do not make minimum wage would get a raise and it becomes a snowball effect. The number of American’s on government programs is extrememly high and increasing minimum wage would hopefully reduce that number greatly.
Social Policy
Commentary and reflection by a community of learners in SWK 373 at the University of Montevallo
Social Policy 
The thought of increasing minimum wage makes me happy but at the same time it scares me. I say this because i feel like after they increase the minimum wage companies are going to have an excuse to increase their prices and then the cost of living would be even higher. If this happens Im afraid that we would find ourselves in a never ending cycle.
This is a fear that many people have, but there is simply no evidence to support it. The total income of all minimum wage workers only accounts for about 1.5% of the economy. Businesses don’t act as a collective and many of the lowest paid workers are employed in the service industry which serves a wide variety of socio-economic groups. Therefore, any price increases will be largely absorbed by businesses themselves by marginally decreased profits, reductions elsewhere in the supply chain, or spread across all products to minimize the impact on any one group of consumers. The effect of the minimum wage on the economy is heavily studied and you can read more about it here: http://www.cepr.net/index.php/press-releases/press-releases/new-paper-finds-modest-minimum-wage-increases-have-little-impact-on-employment