(SIOUX CITY, IA) - Part of the President's State of the Union address Tuesday night included raising the federal minimum wage. Right now the federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour. The President wants to raise that to $9/hour.
Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota all share that same minimum wage. Some say upping that wage is a good thing while others think it's unnecessary.
Square Tire employees make more than the federal minimum wage.
"I'm gonna pay what it takes in the market to attract that good, hardworking, honest employee. If I don't, my employees are smart enough to find another job that'll pay better," said Square Tire owner, Scott Eldridge.
Right now, 19 states have a minimum wage above the federal minimum wage, but Washington is the only state above $9/hour: the proposed wage President Obama has for all Americans working hourly-paid jobs.
"I think it would help because I have to commute back and forth to college. So to be able to spend money for gas or anything else, it would help having that $9/hour," said Teagan Wilkenson, a minimum wage worker and college student.
"If you're working full time at minimum wage, you're living in poverty. I think it's a good step socially and hopefully that can continue to go up," said part-time worker, John Vining.
Eldridge believes business owners should be the ones who decide how to pay their employees. He also said the minimum wage shouldn't exist at all.
"I don't think that's the place of the President. If you looked at it real simply, what creates jobs? Businessmen going out and creating a business and then paying an employee a good wage in order to have his business run," said Eldridge.
Still, an economics professor states raising the minimum wage has a positive effect at least down the road.
"It has a lot of welfare benefits. Sustainability business in the one end side, that could enhance the welfare of the business community. Plus, income status goes up for the poor class families and their living standard goes up," said Satis Devkota, a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of South Dakota.
As of 2011, 1.7 million Americans made the federal minimum wage. A little less than half of them are age 25 and older.
