The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which has not been increased since 2009, has had numerous negative effects on American workers nationwide. These include an overall decrease in quality of life as individuals are unable to make ends meet due to the fact they are paid so little (Wage Project 2019). This means many people have had to take on multiple jobs instead of just one in order to survive and still might not be able to afford basic necessities like food or housing making them overly reliant on government subsidies or programs like SNAP and Section 8 (Gould et al., 2018). In addition there is evidence showing that those working within low wage industries tend experience greater levels of job dissatisfaction than those with higher pay increments due to feeling undervalued for their efforts (Neumark & Wascher 2008). As a result this can lead them quitting sooner rather than later having gone through long hours without any tangible benefits attached such as better wages leading employers finding themselves constantly having hire additional staff or pay overtime costs for existing employees (Neumark & Wascher 2008; Wage Project 2019). Another consequence is that it makes these same businesses less competitive with their competitors who offer similar services yet may compensate employees at higher rates forcing them eventually close down when they are no longer able make enough revenue maintain operations (Neumark & Wascher 2008; Gould et al., 2018). All these things demonstrate how detrimental it can be when wages remain stagnant over time, creating unnecessary hardships both on employers and employees alike.