In the past 30 years, minimum wage has changed a lot. It was established under the
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill, along with a slew of others, quickly to avoid pocket vetoes. The bill banned oppressive child labor and set the minimum hourly wage at 25 cents with a maximum workweek of 44 hours. While a lot of industries believed this standard would hurt the American economy, especially after a long period of economic depression, Roosevelt warned listeners of his iconic fireside chats: “Do not let any calamity-howling executive with an income of $1,000 a day, ...tell you...that a wage of $11 a week is going to have a disastrous effect on all American industry.”
Since then, the
federal minimum wage has risen to $7.25 an hour. For a full-time employee, that’s about $15,080 annually. For a single person, this puts them just above the poverty line, which is currently set at $11,702. For a family of four, the threshold is $22,881. However, there are many states, Georgia included, where the minimum wage is significantly less than the federal minimum. It’s only $5.15. While the federal minimum takes precedent and should trump Georgia law, there are many people in Georgia being paid grossly less than our nation’s standard. $5.15 would put you under the newly set poverty line. You would only be making about $10,300 a year. Curious to know what year $5.15 was the federal minimum? 1998.
Even under the trying economic atmosphere, it’s simply unfair, not to mention illegal, to many people dutifully heading to work everyday to be paid so little just because they live in Georgia. Regardless of what Georgia state law says, federal laws always trumps state law. If you pursued a case, it would move to federal court. If you want to talk about your legal options, you can always see what you’re legally entitled to by meeting with one of our lawyers.
