Minimum wage is the minimum hourly wage an employer can pay an employee. This number is determined by the government, and it is illegal for employers to pay their non-exempt workers anything below the minimum wage. This is very important, because it makes sure that employees do not fall into poverty.
My boys and I recently had a conversation about minimum wage and it got me thinking about my first job. It was the late 1980’s and I was 13 years old. I worked at Bishop’s Buffet rolling silverware in napkins and I made a whopping $2.15 an hour!
Spark your math thinking!
- Set up your math mini spark recording page: #36: Minimum Wage
- Go to this site and click around on the map to see some of the current minimum wages in the United States. Record several observations on your recording page.
- Look at this site and make a table of Nebraska’s minimum wage from 1968 to present.
- Using the same site in #3, compare the minimum wage for several states. Make a table and then transfer it to a graph. Use this online graphing tool or another graphing tool of your choice.
- Read about Nebraska’s minimum wage at: https://www.minimum-wage.org/nebraska What kinds of jobs offer minimum wage? Is $12.00 an hour sufficient?
- Ask a parent, grandparent, or other adult what their first job was and how much they made per hour.
- Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.
Really $9.00 a hour in 2016 is minimum wage! That’s not enough money to support you and if you have family not enough to support them.
Wow Nebraska’s minimum wage went up $8.00 in the past years!?
I had no idea that you were required to pay a certain amount to employees. I wonder what would happen if you paid them below the minimum wage.
How could you make a living off of $1.00 per hour in 1968?
I can’t believe that in 1968 people only got $1.00 an hour!! And now workers get $9.00 an hour and 18,720.00 a year! But I also thought it would be more then $9.00.
I can’t believe how much it changed!
Wow, someone must be really cheap if they wanna pay you $9.00 and hour! What would happen if someone payed you less than the minimum wage? Would they go to jail or what?
Mr. Kock was a receptionist at the church rectory and he made $4.25 an hour.