What's up, everyone? This is your intrepid truth seeking friend, Andrew, back at it with another blog post. Today I'm dedicating this one to the average, underpaid and overworked individual in America. I'm talking about money; something we can all say we like stuffing in our wallets. Thanks to some recent changes to the system I would like to focus this week's blog on a very central part of our money system, minimum wage.

So, let’s begin with explaining what exactly minimum wage is. According to Merriam-Webster, minimum wage can be simply defined as a “livable wage,” or for those seeking a more in depth definition, as the “lowest wage paid or permitted to be paid; specifically, a wage fixed by legal authority or by contract as the least that may be paid either to employed persons generally or to a particular category of employed persons.” Now that we understand what minimum wage is, let's delve into some facts about it. Currently in America the national minimum wage is just $7.25 according to the Department of Labor. Let me tell you from experience that this really isn't a “livable wage”. Let’s say you make just minimum wage working a full time forty-hour a week job. With some calculation that works out to about $15,080 a year not including any overtime incurred. Hopefully, we can all see how this is not a minimum wage by definition since the poverty line, for a family of three, in America is $20,090 (a whopping $5,010 above a full time minimum wage job) according to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. This can’t be that big of a deal, can it? Surely our government and the businesses that we work for would keep us at a “livable wage”, right? Wrong. According to the Bureau of Labor statistics out of the 77.2 million hourly paid workers, 1.3 were at the federal minimum at $7.25. However, around 1.7 million are earning even less than that. These numbers are terrifying to me when I look at the economy as a whole. So, the good part, how we can fix this? While the government has kinda sat back and twiddled their thumbs individual cities have heeded the call for change. Their answer to this problem is to raise minimum wage. It's a great idea, right? If it's to low, raise it, obviously. Sadly, this is not the answer. The only true answer is to force the fat cats at the top to distribute the wealth to their employees.

There, you have now had a taste of how confusing the whole thing is. I could go into a great bit more detail but what's the point since the problem is crystal clear already. Raising the minimum wage is not the answer to our problems. Only through a total revamping of the system can we expect actual change to occur and for things to get better. There, I said what we all want, a complete overhaul of the current corrupt system. We were all thinking it. Let’s make it a reality. I challenge each one of you to start talking and start sharing the word of change. Through that we can break down the wall of red tape and move toward the horizon of progress.

This is Andrew (panama) Godfrey saying thanks and wishing you a good day.