Question

Do you believe the federal government should set minimum wage or should minimum wage be set by the states.

Answer 1

There are truly large differences of opinion on the minimum wage at the state and national levels.

Some people prefer the minimum wage rate to be set by the federal government, being an arbitrary rate that doesn't consider the significant differences between the states so as to bring uniformity in the wage structure.

However, some prefer the wage rate to be set by each state individually, as there are a number of factors that vary greatly from state to state. Factors such as cost of living, food, housing etc tend to cost more in some states. For instance, the worth of a dollar in a remote area of the United States is nothing if you take the same dollar to places like New York and California. This means, that one dollar spent in a remote area will be very different from that spent for buying groceries, or paying rents or watching movies. Thus, it makes absolute no sense, to have a unique wage structure that must be followed by all the states. Rather, the states must be allowed to evaluate their unique situations and set wage floors as per their interest.

Thus, I believe that the minimum wage must be set by the states.