Eli Borgenicht interview: “I feel like the minimum wage needs to be raised because it’s been at an extremely low point for several years on end and it’s past overdue for a raise. There is lots of evidence out there that supports the fact that there isn’t enough money being paid to minimum wage workers for them to provide for their families. It is important for workers to be paid a fair amount so, as I said, they can provide for their families. Sometimes, if not most of the time, when you’re working at a minimum wage job and you have a family at home, it becomes very difficult to provide meals and school supplies and essentials like clothes and books and other things like that to the families. I would vote to raise the minimum wage because like I’ve said many times, it’s well overdue. Even if these jobs are lost, we know that they can be easily gained back. We’ve seen this with the COVID-19 pandemic how many jobs have been lost but many of those are being gained back slowly and steadily.”
Julia Summerfield interview: “We need to raise the minimum wage. If workers aren’t paid a fair amount in exchange for their hours, companies will experience less productivity and the workers aren’t able to afford basic living expenses. Even small changes can lift so many people out of poverty- and because the US could increase the minimum wage gradually, the jobs lost could be minimized and prepared for better. I think we should raise the minimum wage through time so that in a modern capitalist society people aren’t struggling to the point they can’t afford rent.”