The federal minimum wage is $7.25, however, President Barack Obama is pressing Congress to “give America a raise”  by allowing minimum wage be raised to $10.10, a significant increase.

   There are people within Congress that do not side with Obama such as Republican House Speaker John Boehner from Ohio who said, “The very people the president claims to help are the ones who are going to be hurt by this.”

    Approximately 3.6 million workers make minimum wage so at first glance it may not seem bad to increase their wages. However, many small companies may not be able to afford paying their workers more than minimum wage. If they are going to be forced to pay more than minimum wage, it could mean that their company would be forced to reduce the number of employees or increase the price of their products.

    Obama expresses his view by explaining that an overwhelming majority of the public is for increasing the wage because even though most of them do not make minimum wage, they understand that “if you put in a hard day’s work you deserve decent pay for it”.

    Obama praised the Costco CEO Craig Jelinek because Costco employees earn $11.50 to start and an average wage of $20 an hour. Jelinek’s belief is that the more money the workers have, the more money they have to put back into the company resulting in an increased profit for the company.

    President Obama said at his 2014 State of Union address, “Profitable corporations like Costco see higher wages as the smart way to boost productivity and reduce turnover. We should too.”

    Many students begin their first job making minimum wage but many also argue that it is not enough to support their families or enough for students to begin helping their families out.

    With this “raise” students can finally provide for their family and afford to pay for things comfortably. It would also allow students to save their money faster and even help college students be able to pay for food and not live off microwaveable foods.