Raising minimum living

“Money is the reason we exist, everybody knows it; it’s a fact,” said singer Lana del Rey in her power ballad “National Anthem.”

For the modern person, money is living.

Do you want food? You need money. Do you want clothes? You need money. Do you want an app? You need money.

There seems to be a simple solution to getting the money you want – getting a job. There is the idea floating around in teenagers’ heads that the first place that you look will give you a lovely job, complete with a high salary and vacation days. This is false.

Many people are discovering that finding a job is not as easy as it originally sounds.

While unemployment rates are slowly dropping, many companies prefer to hire those of college age and older to work. Most jobs open to teenagers are either the occasional babysitting gig or consistent employment at minimum wage.

For those with such a job, you may be seeing more money soon. President Obama has recently agreed to the Harkin-Miller Proposal, which will raise minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour.

This $2.85 raise will greatly benefit those working minimum wage jobs. Currently, the average part time work week amount is around $253.75. Does this seem like a lot? The average gas price is about $3.00 a gallon. With the added raise, the work week pay check could move up to $353.50.That’s almost a hundred dollar more a week.

According to the National Poverty Center, 15.1 percent of the American population were under the poverty line in 2010. This percentage could go down with a minimum wage raise. People with a raised minimum wage could be better able to afford the food and clothes needed for basic survival.

Raising minimum wage is not just about raising a dollar amount, but raising a way of living.

As President Obama said in his address supporting this bill, “Even with the tax relief we [have] in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line…Tonight, let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full time should have to live in poverty.”